Unexpected
by freshprincess
Summary: Future Fic - Rachel's life takes a few unexpected turns toward the end of high school and she's headed for a future that wasn't in her five year plan. Puck's life is headed where he hoped, but not where he expected. Their paths cross as they go.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is the first multi-chapter I've written in years. But I got two ideas in my head (basically everything in this chapter involving Brittany and another idea that will be a few chapters down the road) and finally broke down to start writing it. The flow is different from what I usually do, starting with more of Rachel's world and switching to Puck halfway thru, and I don't know if I'll stick with that in future chapters, but its an experiment in killing my unemployed boredom. Unbeta'd so sorry if there are goofs. And technically, all this disclaimer stuff is nonsense b/c I could claim a derivative work if I really wanted to. Anyway, read, review, alert, whatever. But here's my new baby, hope you like it!**

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The economy in Ohio was as awful as it was in the rest of the country. Rachel knew that from her daily reading of CNN, DrudgeReport and New York Times' websites. (Despite her laser like focus on Broadway stardom, Rachel did realize that as a public figure she might be asked about current events and it was important for her to stay informed on what was going on in the news so that no reporter could ever make her look uneducated.)

Rachel didn't think that she would have to learn about this national crisis first hand. But there she was, her last month of her senior year, with one arm wrapped around her smaller father on the couch as her taller dad fixed his partner a drink. A strong one. Straight up. Because today her father had been laid off from his law firm.

As a partner in the firm, Rachel had mistakenly assumed that he would be safe from the cut backs she knew would be happening at Baran, Piper, Tarkowsky, Fitzgerald and Theis. It was one of the largest firms in Ohio, but that didn't mean it wouldn't take a hit. And since apparently her father hadn't brought in any new clients recently and had one of the higher salaries, he was considered disposable.

For once in her life, Rachel didn't say much, just rubbing her hand up and down her father's back while he sipped his bourbon. She listened to her parents discuss what they were going to do now that this was a reality. Their reality.

Her father could practice from his home office and try to get clients on his own, but he couldn't take any of his old clients with him as it was part of his termination agreement. Her dad's job was solid, considering the fact that he owned the insurance agency at which he worked. But things would get tighter. The severance package was far less than what her father's normal income had been and it would only last for six months.

When her parents reached a lull in the conversation, Rachel cleared her throat and spoke in a voice that was far softer than her usual tone, "I have an idea that could help some."

Both of the men's heads turned to look at her, brows furrowed as to what suggestion their baby girl could have in this moment.

"I would appreciate your best active listening skills as I fully explain my idea to you before you comment. I know I was accepted to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, but I also am aware of the fact that I did not receive a scholarship and that our tax bracket makes us ineligible for student loans and grants that could fully cover my tuition for four years, as well as living expenses in the city. I am aware that you have saved a considerable amount of money to pay said tuition, and while your foresight into providing for my education is appreciated, I feel as though you should keep that money to help you through this transitional period. I applied to OSU as a backup, but they do have an excellent Voice program, as well as a Dance and Theatre program. My acceptance came with a scholarship which would fully cover my tuition expenses, as well as lab and book fees. All we would have to cover would be room and board, which are far less expensive in Columbus opposed to Manhattan."

Rachel took a deep breath before setting her shoulders back firmly and giving a nod of her head, "I propose that I accept the position at OSU and become a Buckeye. Tisch has summer and masters programs if I am so inclined to participate, and Broadway isn't going anywhere. But our family needs this more than I need Manhattan right now."

In retrospect, Rachel could hardly believe she was able to get those words out of her mouth. Either her acting skills were far better than even she suspected, or she really was becoming an adult who grasped priorities in life.

When her speech was over, her dads started in on how Rachel needn't give up her dreams for them. Money was only money and they would survive. But she was firm in her resolve and after several hours of discussion, tears and hugging, it was finally decided that it would likely be the best plan for the family given their current situation.

Before going to bed that night, Rachel signed onto her Facebook account. There were a few new status updates, some pictures posted by Kurt from he and Mercedes' shopping adventure that afternoon and a youtube posted by Mike of a cat doing back flips in some random living room which was vaguely amusing. Rachel went to her profile page to edit her information, and added in "Ohio State University, '16" to her education information.

She fell asleep that evening with a small smile on her lips, happy that she could do something to help her fathers after they had done so much to help her. She wasn't abandoning her dream, just changing her path to get there.

* * *

Two weeks later, Rachel was sitting in the choir room, studying the sheet music of what she would be performing that weekend at her audition in Columbus for the Voice department. It was merely a technicality, she had met the dean at Regionals the month before and he had assured her a spot was hers in the program if she would only accept. His acknowledgement of her obvious talent was part of what made Rachel's decision to attend OSU easier to accept.

Brittany entered the room and rather than take her usual seat in the back of the class, she sat next to Rachel with a bright smile on her face, "Hi roomie!"

Rachel tried to not let the confusion show on her face. Brittany said off the wall things from time to time and Rachel had learned that if you looked at her in a way that displayed your questioning of her intelligence, she could easily get her feelings hurt and shut down for hours. It seemed akin to kicking a puppy, so Rachel in general tried her best to not let her reactions to Brittany register on her face.

But she did question the statement with a slight tilt of her head, "Roomie? Pardon?"

Brittany rolled her eyes, but kept the smile on her face, "We're rooming together in college because I don't want to make everyone bring their own food, silly!"

Whatever was happening made perfect sense to Brittany, but Rachel was officially beyond lost at the situation, "Wait, what? Brittany, who told you this?"

"S and Q! They just told me in the hall!" And with that, Brittany reached over and wrapped her arms around Rachel in a bone crushing hug, "We are going to have so much fun decorating! I really like the color orange. And I was thinking we could get pet chicks and name them Cluck and Quack!"

Rachel pulled back from the hug, never so happy to see Santana and Quinn enter the room in their matching Cheerios uniforms. She had known that Santana would be attending OSU, but she had apparently missed the memo regarding Quinn and Brittany's attendance.

"Ladies. Brittany just informed me that I will be sharing a living space with her next year so that people don't have to bring their own food. Care to explain?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and gave a wave of her hand, speaking as she walked to her usual seat, "We want to live in Worthington on the South side, but you need four people to live in there."

Santana continued the explanation as she sat down next to Brittany, reaching out and linking pinkies with the girl, "We didn't want to risk getting some freak loser we didn't know by going pot luck for our fourth, so we figured go with the freak loser we do know. So when I saw on Facebook you were going to OSU, we called the housing office and added you to our list. Got the confirmation email today, we're in."

Quinn held up her iPhone, displaying said email, "Room 126 A and B. Which is good because both bathrooms have bathtubs so we won't have to fight over who gets stuck with just the crummy shower. You and me in a room, the lezbots in another."

"Have you not checked your 'berry, Berry? The email came in like thirty minutes ago." Santana rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly before examining her cuticles on her free hand.

Rachel had not been this quiet amongst this group of girls in years. Not since they were torturing her on a regular basis during which she would sit quietly and take it. Since they had joined Glee and been through so much together, she wouldn't say they were friends, but they were friendly and often capable of holding a conversation where Rachel did more than ask the opening question.

Rather than reply to any of this, she checked her phone and sure enough, there was a flashing red light alerting her to a new message. Opening the email, it listed that her dorm request had been filled and her new roommates names. "But I requested North," was all she managed to get out quietly.

"Oh give it up, Stubbles. North is for losers and nerds. So I guess you would have fit in okay up there. But you're going to college and have a chance at a real life and everyone knows if you want any hope of that, you live South. And your living with us will give you major points. Accept your fate," Santana paused and leaned across Brittany, a look on her face that Rachel had never seen on the Latina before. It wasn't a sneer, but it wasn't a smirk. Just as if she knew something evil that Rachel didn't want to know. Santana took her beat before she continued, "Your fate is to be awesome. You're going to be living with the hottest girls on the South side and will be hot by default. Don't screw this up and keep your freak status."

As Santana leaned back into her seat, the rest of Glee slowly filtered into the room, leaving Rachel to read, and reread, the email regarding her living situation. Rather than announcing to Mr. Schuester that she would be performing her audition pieces for them today, she sat in her seat quietly until it was time to get up and run through their numbers for the Graduation performance.

She was paired with Puck for "Good Riddance" and after she stepped on his toes for the fifth time, he stopped and looked down at her, "What the hell is wrong with you today Berry?"

"I'm going to be living with Quinn, Santana and Brittany next year." She said it in such a tone it was clear she was still in shock over the news, and Puck understood why. Living with those three? Not something he was expecting out of Berry. Of course, her going to OSU had been unexpected as well, so it sort of went with the trend.

"Good luck with that one," Puck snorted before spinning Rachel out, rejoining the others in their choreography.

Puck was still on the waiting list for a place at OSU's main campus, but a part of him was hopeful he'd get in just so he could be close enough to watch that shit show on a daily basis. As he thought about the potential situation throughout the rest of practice, he realized it could go a few different ways. There would either be physical violence, a complete conversion of Rachel to the dark side, or everyone going insane. In Puck's mind, all of these potential situations led to scenarios he stored away in the spank bank, so fuck yeah, he wanted to be close by to witness this disaster in person.

* * *

Graduation day came and Puck was having mixed emotions. High school was over, and despite everyone saying they were the "best years of his life," he was ready to put them behind him.

In four years, Puck had gone from Cougar-chasing-fuck-machine badass to get-your-ass-kicked-by-your-former-best-friend babydaddy to give-your-baby-up-for-adoption-and-cry-like-a-pussy dude to a guy that was so far under the radar except for Glee, people kinda forgot about his fuckery to senior football captain stud. It had been a ride, but Puck was pretty sure he was ready to get off.

The only problem with that was he was still on the wait list for OSU. He knew that he could go to OSU-Lima the next fall and start getting basic credits done, but that wasn't the same. That wasn't getting the fuck out of Lima. That wasn't going to be him taking any sort of classes in anything he cared about. That would be him living at home, still sneaking around his mom's rules and probably sleeping with the same girls a grade below him that he was now.

Puck wanted to move on but he needed somewhere to move on to.

These thoughts clouded his mind as he stood on that stage, wearing a stupid robe and stupid hat as he spun Rachel around wearing her stupid robe and stupid hat. After this final song they would go back to sitting in alphabetical order, get handed pieces of rolled up paper that weren't actual diplomas, but threats from Figgins about unpaid library and parking fines before the diplomas were mailed out, and then they'd throw their stupid hats.

And then what?

Puck didn't know and that was fucking with his head. But when Rachel smiled that mega-watt smile up at him, he decided to let it go for these few minutes, smile back and enjoy the fact that he would never have to get on a stage and perform something like this again. He liked Glee and all, but some of this shit was having serious repercussions on his man card holdings.

The song finished and things went just as Puck knew they would. After the ceremony, as they had been instructed to do by Rachel repeatedly over the past few weeks, the club members and their families met by a tree on the left side of the school courtyard to take pictures.

He chuckled as he watched Rachel, Quinn, Brittany and Santana take a picture together, smiling with their arms around each other as if they had been friends these past four years. He was sure it had been Rachel's idea so that it could be framed in their new room and give the "appropriate" appearance to visitors. He'd had enough Rachel Berry encounters. He knew how that little brain of hers worked.

As he watched the girls take pictures and moved his gown around slightly because the polyester over dress pants was giving him serious ball sweat, his little sister had apparently snuck up behind him and jumped on his back in a proper sneak attack like he had taught her, "NOAH!"

She had screamed right in his ear and her skinny arms were choking his neck. He had to adjust her into a proper piggy back position before slapping at one of her calves, "Way to make me lose my hearing, twerp."

His sister kicked him in the stomach but continued to hold him, "Bite me. Mom has mail for you, says it's important."

Puck had just graduated high school, a small miracle in itself and his mom was worried about some mail? He looked around for her and saw his mom nearby, holding a large packet. He carried his sister toward her and when he got close, he saw a large "OSU" in red ink in the corner. "Holy fuck," he let out reverently.

"I forgot to check the mail yesterday and looked in the box on our way out the door. This was there waiting." His mom was grinning from ear to ear as Puck literally dropped his little sister on her butt and ripped the envelope out of her hands. It was the big envelope. Big envelopes meant good things.

And sure enough, on top of brochures and pamphlets, was a letter that began, "Dear Mr. Noah Puckerman, we are happy to extend an offer to you for a place in the Buckeye class of 2016…"

He didn't make it much further before he took off running towards the four girls still posing for various cameras, "I'M GOING TO OHIO STATE! I GOT IN! I'M GOING TO OSU!" he whooped, jumping in the middle of the picture and pulling Rachel and Quinn into a hug. The girls were shocked but happy for Noah, hugging him back. Santana and Brittany, not to be left out, joined in the group hug which resulted in the five of them jumping up and down. Puck didn't care at this point how ridiculous he looked or that there would be photographic evidence of his less than badass jumping around moment. He was getting out of Lima. He was going to OSU. Life was good.

After showing the letter to everyone and receiving many hugs, the entire group gathered together to take one last official team photo. Rachel, as usual, had positioned herself front and center in the photo (something she claimed was necessary due to her height), and Puck was behind her, both arms wrapped around her shoulders. Continuing to hold his forced smile, he muttered softly in her ear, "So you gonna let me drag you to a few football games next season?"

Rachel, for the first time somewhat unsure about what her future would hold, held her mega-watt smile perfectly as she spoke back to him, "Of course, I want to get the full college experience."

Puck laughed and squeezed her a little closer to his body, "I have a feeling you're going to be in for more of an experience than you even know living with those three and having me around. Promise you that."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I was doing my research on Lima and trying to find a place for the second scene to happen. This is a depressing little town. Their mall selection sucks and they don't even have a Target! I'm a little heartbroken over that. Kurt must be ordering his fashions from gilt or hautelook b/c they SURE as heck aren't being sold in Lima! Anyway thanks for the great response to the first chapter and here is chapter 2! Enjoy!**

**AN 2 : Just wrote half this thing and then did my research to find out that OSU uses a quarter system and doesn't do rush until the winter quarter. Stupid stupid grrrrr. Sorry, just had to share my frustration and give a half assed apology if anything about rush/recruitment seems disjointed. Stupid realism.**

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It was two weeks into summer slash three months until Rachel was to move an hour and a half away from the only home she'd ever known. So far it had been filled with her regular daily schedule of dance, voice and acting classes, but without school to fill the remainder of her day, Rachel was left with far more free time than she was used to.

In order to fill that time, she spent many hours researching the courses and professors at Ohio State, going through various design magazines in order to determine what would be her best choices to create a comfortable living space for the next year, and reading as many books from her "free reading" list as possible. That list had been created by her fathers and was updated every year with books they felt were necessary to her education as well as age appropriate.

Rachel had been laying by her pool reading Kavalier and Clay which was a bit on the lighter side for her personal taste, but an interesting page turner for pool side purposes. She was pulled from her concentration when her phone rang and was shocked to see Quinn's name on her screen. Sure, she had all of the Glee club members names in her phone for captain purposes, but it was far more frequently her calling them rather than vice versa.

Hitting the green button, she tried to sound as calm as possible whilst answering the phone, "Hello Quinn, how might I help you today?"

There was a sigh that Rachel was almost positive accompanied an eye roll before Quinn spoke, "Can't you just answer a phone like a teenager? Whatever, come over to Santana's house, we're laying out and making dorm room decorating decisions. Brittany said she'd hold her breath until we included you and she's already almost passed out twice so get over here."

"Oh, that's wonderful, I have…" Rachel was cut off by a click that signified that Quinn had hung up on her. Marking her place in her book and throwing her cover up over her black bikini, Rachel scurried into the house and upstairs to her room to gather up her magazines and three ring binder of print outs from her computer of dorm decorating ideas.

She slipped a pair of flip flops on before she ran downstairs to leave a note on the whiteboard for her dads and loaded into her car. Santana only lived a few streets over from Rachel in the same neighborhood, but with all her research and the high temperatures, it seemed to be an intelligent decision to drive that afternoon.

Upon her arrival and knocking on Santana's door, Santana's mother answered with a smile and guided Rachel to the backyard where the three girls were laying in lounge chairs all facing each other and a fourth chair had been pulled up for Rachel to take. Rachel thanked Santana's mom for showing her the way before she walked up to the group and dropped her stack of magazines and binder on the chair, "Hello future roommates, I am so excited that you have decided to take a proactive stance on making sure our space is well coordinated and aesthetically pleasing. Now you will see I have marked some pages and printed ideas-"

She was cut off by Santana as she reached for a magazine, "We've already decided. Browns, neutrals and gold in the common space…"

"Orange, pink and mint green for me and Santana's bedroom…" Brittany continued.

"And blue, white and silver in our room. No exceptions." Quinn finished as she and Brittany also grabbed from the stack. "There are perfect comforters and accessories in each of these color schemes available at Sheets N Things."

Brittany was laying on her stomach and looked up at Rachel with a bright smile, "We're going to go shopping tomorrow! You can come with us." And with that, the three girls opened their magazines and looked down, away from Rachel who was standing there with a small frown on her face and her hands on her hips.

"Are you going to take that terry cloth terror off and lay out with us or what?" Santana asked without looking up after a few moments passed. "A solid tan is key to looking good for when informal rush starts."

Rachel sighed as she unzipped her dress and slipped it off her shoulders before laying down and joining the other girls, "I wasn't planning on going through the sorority process."

That got the other girls' full attention, heads snapping up to stare at Rachel as she laid down on the lounge chair on her back, "Are you kidding me? You have to rush. We're going to be a greek suite. All four of us have to rush. It's part of the plan," Santana stated as if Rachel had just informed them that she was planning to commute from Lima to Columbus on a daily basis instead of rooming with them. (Don't think the thought hadn't crossed Rachel's mind. She calculated that even driving a hybrid, the gas price and on campus parking permit would not make that particular idea cost effective.)

"We're all legacies. Santana's a Theta, I'm a Kappa and Brittany is a Pi Phi. You have to rush. The real stuff doesn't start until Winter Quarter, but there are informal parties that are key to your social life for the next four years. C'mon. Do you really want to be RuPaul and ManHands again when you go to college? No. You want to be like us. So you're rushing." Quinn was in full on head Cheerio mode when she said this. Rachel was not to question this, Quinn had spoken and that should have been enough on the topic.

"I have two fathers. I'm not a legacy to any house. It's a considerable amount of money to pay for friends when, you know… I have you guys, Puck and Artie. Right? Why invest in a silly club whose goal will be to get me drunk and to make out with boys and hang out with other women that I may not like?" Rachel had relinquished a considerable amount of control to these three girls. She had accepted the dorm she would be living in (which was admittedly pretty nice), she had accepted what meal plan and matching bike she would have to buy, she was accepting their color schemes (which again, were admittedly nice and somewhat along the lines of what she had noted during her research), but she was going to put a foot down about this one.

Brittany frowned and rested her chin on her palm and looked at Rachel, "But its super fun and we're all doing it and you can meet other new friends and we get to wear pretty dresses and you can be really pretty when you're not wearing grandma sweaters. Those make you really ugly. It's why we're going to throw those out."

"WHAT?" Rachel shrieked at that comment, sitting straight up in her chair, "You are not going to be discarding any part of my wardrobe."

"Oh. We are. Kurt's helping." Santana gave that same evil sneer/smirk that Rachel had seen weeks ago. "You are not bringing any of those travesties to college. We will find you, oh, I don't know, in style and age appropriate clothes. You bring any of that ugly shit you own now to college and I will throw it in the garbage shoot. And trust me, you won't want to go dumpster diving to get any of them back."

Quinn reached a hand over and rested it on Rachel's wrist, "We're doing this because we really are trying to help. Yeah, we want our suite to be the best and most awesome, but you're going to college Rachel. Do you really want it to be high school all over again?" Rachel frowned at this comment, but before she could reply, Quinn continued, "You obviously have an amazing body, you have perfect hair, and other than that schnoz of yours, you're actually kinda pretty sometimes. A wardrobe makeover before anything gets packed is really all you need before going to college."

"And anyway, Santana already sent in your recruitment application!" Brittany chirped as she kicked her feet back and forth.

Rachel sighed and looked around from girl to girl. They were taking over her life no matter how hard she fought, "Fine. But I get final say before any articles of clothing are purchased and if I do go through rush and decide I don't like any of the houses, I don't have to pledge because that is far too expensive to hate it for a year just to make you three happy. And we will use those color schemes, but I will be looking at bedding from locations than Sheets N Things because I found some lovely organic fabrics online…" she reached for her binder to show the girls what she had found.

Three hours and some much improved tan lines later, the girls had all agreed to order their bedding from the organic website Rachel had discovered, that they would be shopping for accessories mostly the next day, that the closet clean out would happen the last week of June and wardrobe rebuilding would commence after July 4th when there were some good sales. The sun was setting as the last of the magazines were loaded into Rachel's trunk and when the other girls hugged her goodbye, she felt like they actually meant it for a change when they said they had fun with her that day.

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Rachel found herself at the mall in mid-July. Summer was passing by quicker than she had expected. In the six weeks since graduation, she found herself becoming more and more consumed with her pre-college plans, and her fathers were supporting her one hundred percent. She had given up so much for their family already, so they were doing their best to be supportive, giving her a healthy budget for purchasing necessary dorm room items, clothes to replace what Kurt had carried out by the garbage bag full (three to be exact, but she still had a considerable amount left. Her assertion that many articles of her wardrobe were basic essentials ended up proving to be true) and nicer dresses for the fall informal recruitment parties.

Rachel had been wary of the recruitment process at the start, but after talking it over more with the girls, her fathers, and some members of her dance class who were back for the summer, it didn't seem like such an awful decision. It would be a way for her to meet more like minded women and have a social circle away from the three she would be living with. Also, on top of the obvious parties, there was a lot of good philanthropy work done. And, she had found one house that had been founded as the musical sorority and another which was a Jewish sorority. Those facts stood out to her. As for the rest of the sororities, their websites and information looked similar to one another and nothing else jumped out at her, but she was determined to give each house a fair chance.

Her wardrobe had been rebuilt with the help of all of the former female glee club members and Kurt, including shoes and accessories. What brought her to the mall that day was Rachel was in hunt for some final touches to add to her and Quinn's room. Their sheets, comforters and pillows had been ordered. Floor lamps and a minifridge were purchased. A small TV and stand to sit in the corner with its own DVR had been procured as well (because everyone knew with that group, one TV and DVR would not be enough and it was easier to buy a second rather than deal with the battles that would surely occur otherwise). Rachel was still on the hunt, however, for some shelves to hang on the wall above her bed and desk, as well as a desk lamp and frames.

With the limited options in Lima and her personal distaste for WalMart or Sheets N Things, Rachel found herself at Macy's home department, searching to see if they might have what she need. Unsurprisingly, everything was either out of her price range or far below even her taste level. As she was making her exit, she passed through the men's department and saw a distinct Mohawk standing out among the racks.

Rachel had hardly seen Noah that summer. Other than a glass of lemonade taken out to him once a week when he cleaned her family's pool and a fourth of July bar-b-q at Matt's, she had spent most of her time in classes, with the girls or her fathers. Taking the opportunity, she approached Noah and greeted him with a bright smile, "Why hello Noah, what brings you to the mall this Tuesday?"

Puck had been digging through the sale rack of t-shirts and polos, seeing if he could catch a break and find some stuff at a decent price. He had planned on going through rush as well, although the boy's process was far different from the girls. It involved attending a lot of parties, drinking heavily, hitting on girls and possibly drinking from a boot and watching nasty ass strippers before he would enter an entire quarter of hell to be accepted by his brothers. It sounded fucking awesome.

Even though Rachel had approached him from the front, she was small and quiet and scared the living crap out of him, legitimately causing him to jump, but in a totally badass way, "Holy fuck, Berry. Are you trying to give me a fucking coronary in the middle of the mall? Because I'd kinda like to live to see the whole leaving Lima part of my life."

Rachel merely laughed and switched her purse from one hand to the other, "I was doing no such thing of the sort, Noah. I just saw that you were at the mall on my way out and thought it would be best to come say hello as I expect you will be one of my best friends in the coming four years."

Rolling his eyes so dramatically it almost hurt, Puck laughed, "Totally, Berry. We're going to get friendship bracelets before the first game. Maybe matching t-shirts too." He went back to his task of digging through shirts, but didn't completely blow her off, "So what's up? I thought you only went shopping with your entourage these days?"

"No, that is only when shopping for items for common dorm space, my colligate wardrobe, and outfits for the informal recruitment parties I will be attending this autumn," she corrected him, beginning to flip through the items on the rack as well. If everyone else could help dress her, maybe she could lend her two cents to his wardrobe. It did lack a bit of a woman's touch.

While Rachel started looking through clothes, Puck stopped and stared at her with his mouth open. When he had heard talk of rush parties and sororities on the 4th of July, he assumed it was just about the other three girls. Rachel? Rushing? A sorority? With normal girls? Hell must have frozen over or Sue Sylvester must have grown a heart because this shit did not happen.

"You're going to be a sorostitute?"

"I'll have you know that sororities are a long standing women's tradition to promote togetherness, philanthropy, the arts, sisterhood and independence. It creates a home for women away from home and helps them grow into adults. It is a way to expand my social horizons and who knows, some day I may need to draw upon this experience for a role. And my photograph will be predominantly featured on my sorority's website as a notable member. Did you know that many actresses from Broadway and Film were in sororities? Not to many notable politicians and news personalities. It is an excellent decision on my part and I would hope that you would not associate me or my future sisters with prostitutes." Rachel finished her rant with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him, almost daring him to say something.

Puck only shrugged, he was used to Rachel and her rants and this point and this topic wasn't a fight worth fighting. Plus, Berry would be totally hot in one of those sorority t-shirts and her tiny as skirts. "That's cool. I'm gonna rush too. Not sure what yet. Some of the older guys that I used to play baseball with are TKE, but some guys from the J are Sammys. I dunno what I'm gonna pledge yet, guess just see who has the hottest chicks at their parties. Not like we can actually pledge til second quarter anyway." Looking back down at the rack, he pulled out a blue polo, "Need some nicer shit for it though, what do you think of this one?"

She scrunched her nose up and shook her head, "Noah no. While I fully understand the concept of wanting to look nice, that is far too bright for your skin tone and the look you generally go for. You should look more into some greys, maybe navy blue, a forest green would make your eyes pop and oh, how do you feel about stripes?" She began pulling items from the rack, t-shirts and polos alike, before she handed them off to Puck and moved on to the rack of button ups, "What pants were you planning on pairing these with? Jeans? Khakis? Shorts? I need to know."

Puck noticed her need to know didn't stop her from pulling more items, "Uh, stripes are okay I guess, as long as it's not like crazy stripes or some shit. Wasn't that a kind of gum when we were kids? And I dunno what I'm gonna wear with it. Whatever is clean?"

She rolled her eyes as she pulled out a white and light blue plaid button up Polo and shoved it at him, "You are such a boy. You should be dressing to impress at recruitment events. Clearly that is why you are shopping here today so you can set your best foot forward. Please think these things through."

"Whatever. I knew there was a sale and I got paid this week. It's not the end of the world that I don't have 'outfits' like you girls planned out. That doesn't matter for guys." Puck didn't need a lecture on how to dress. His basic combo had been working for years, he was just trying to step up the game slightly at a discounted rate.

"These young men will be judging you on appearance just as much as the ladies of the sororities will be judging me. So please, get over your macho attitude, take these to the dressing room and try them on." Rachel added a few more shirts to the stack before pointing toward the dressing room.

He couldn't help himself as he smirked and leaned in slightly, "You gonna come in with me, Berry? Tell me how hot these make me look? Tell me how good my guns look in the tight polo sleeves? "

"I will do nothing of the sort. I actually must get going as I would like to look at Pottery Barn's website this afternoon before I have to go to dance class. I'm sure you are a perfectly capable judge of how these suit your wardrobe needs. Good luck Noah and I will see you later." She pulled her purse onto her shoulder and headed toward the exit of the store as Puck just shook his head before heading to the dressing room. Future sorostitue or not, Berry was still a trip.

* * *

Puck had been late putting in his housing request what with being on the waitlist and getting his acceptance a month or two after everyone else. He obviously wanted to live on the South, because like the girls, he had heard that was where the parties were and all the Greeks lived. And not living in the heart of the party was not the Puckerone way.

He had planned on going pot luck, but as fate would have it, he had gotten a phone call earlier in the summer from Artie Abrams asking if he would be interested in rooming together. Puck had been unsure at first, but ended up going for it for a few reasons.

First, since Artie was in a chair, that meant they would be getting a handicapable room. Which meant their room would be fucking ginormous. With a massive bathroom. And no bunk beds, like the rest of the rooms in Siebert Hall had, Puck learned. All huge perks.

Second, Artie was accepted to OSU a long ass time ago, and because of that, got one of the better South dorms. Puck could totally ride Artie's coat tails to awesomeness that he couldn't achieve going into the housing lottery on his own.

Third, Artie was actually a pretty fucking awesome dude. He had started hanging out with the guys two years ago, jamming and kicking everyone's ass at COD. Living with the guy would be a blast and a hell of a lot better than potentially living with someone who sucked ass.

And finally, since Artie was handicapable (yeah yeah, Puck had started using that PC lame ass term through the years even though no one fucking else did. Stupid gleeks rubbing off on him), that provided the pair of them an excuse to have a car on campus.

See, freshmen weren't allowed to have cars on campus at OSU. And unless they wanted to pay an assload for private off campus parking that would be a hike and a fucking half and not worth having the fucking thing, you just sucked it up and learned to love your bike and the bus.

But not for Puckster and Artmeister (he was still working on that nickname).

They not only got to have a parking permit, they got front fucking row. And by they, Puck meant Artie. But Artie didn't drive. His dad drove him and he never purchased a car equipped with hand controls. That meant that the love of Puck's life, his baby, his 1998 Chevy extended cab truck got to go to college with him. Which worked out well because through the years they learned they could easily throw Artie's chair in the back and they were used to that system now.

All of these facts combined led to a family dinner of the Puckermans and the Abrams during the month of August. The boys didn't leave for college for another month, but Artie's parents and Puck's mom had spoken so much on the phone about the boys, they felt they needed to meet in person and have a "family meal".

It was an okay meal as far as parents included meals were concerned. Artie's mom could cook a mean ass lasagna, his little brother was in Puck's sister's class so they were totally entertained by one another and their parents seemed to get along.

So, it was no big deal when the guys took three cookies each and said they would be in the media room if anyone needed them. They had always gotten along, but since they went to orientation together a few weeks ago, they had started to form that roommate bond.

Artie was setting up the game on the projector screen as Puck threw himself down in his favorite leather recliner. There were five of them in the room but this one, it was his favorite. Optimal view of the screen with minimal glare and easy access to high five or punch Artie in the arm next to him, whatever the situation called for.

They began playing the game, not saying much for about ten minutes before Puck let out a grunt, "So there are three home football games before we move into the dorms and fuck if I'm missing putting any of our season tickets to use. You down for a road trip to watch us beat up Marshall?"

"Hells to the yes, man. I fully intend on busting out the red body paint as well." Artie had gotten seriously into the school spirit vibe at orientation, screaming along with the cheer and pom squad as they taught the incoming freshmen all the chants. Puck had been surprised because despite Artie's participation in band in high school, he never really knew the guy to have a ton of school spirit. But the Puckasaurus was always down for some body painting – the ladies liked to see the guns and chest in full effect.

"Awesome, I'll paint myself grey." He was quiet for a moment, focused on getting his shot off right before speaking again, "I'll see if the chicks wanna ride down with us. Our seats are together and I'm sure San is gonna want to lez out over her girlfriend being on the pom squad in that tiny outfit. I didn't know they came smaller than that Cheerio shit, but thank God I was wrong."

"I thought they stopped hooking up last year when Coach Sylvester caught them making out in her office?"

"Nah, they still totally get it on. The pinky thing? Trust me. It's happening."

"Damn. What I wouldn't give to roll in on that," Artie said solemnly with a slight shake of his head.

"You said it brother. You said it." Both boys rested their controllers in their laps for a minute, getting caught up in thoughts of their friends together before the surround sound of machine guns snapped them back to the reality of their video game.

After making sure they stayed alive, Puck resumed the conversation, "I'll call Q tomorrow. She's the ring leader of that crew still, just don't tell San that. I'm just not sure about Berry. I was shocked she went in on season tickets with us. Has she ever been to a football game?"

"I think I saw her at a few in high school. Though you guys sorry asses have nothing on O-H…I-O!" Artie began, before the two looked at each other and grinned.

"OHIO! OHIO! OHIO!" The pair yelled it in unison. Okay, so maybe Artie hadn't been the only one to get into the whole school spirit thing.

They threw each other a high five before both yelling together again, "Go Bucks!" Yeah. This roommate business was going to work out awesome.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Okay. I have to preface this chapter with less of an AN and more of a rant. I hate Ohio State. I am a diehard-bleeding-burnt-orange-can't-live-without-them University of Texas fan. I'm an alumna and I have distinct memories of standing on the couch in our media room screaming when Texas beat Ohio State at the Horseshoe in the last quarter in 2005 (our National Championship season, thankyouverymuch). But I have put aside that hate thus far because it is the school that makes the most sense for what I want to write.**

**But OSU is not doing anything to help their case as I do my research and fight to keep realism incorporated into my story. First, parts of their website are far from updated. Then, they're on the quarter system. Then, they screw things up by delaying rush. Then, they say first years can't have cars on campus (I found my loophole, thank you Artie). And now, NOW, I find out that they have two co-ed cheer teams and a lame dance team that doesn't even go on field for football games and they don't start their post-camp practices until three weeks after football season starts! **

**Brittany is way too tall to be on a co-ed college squad so guess what. Realism be dammed. If you know something about OSU football and you think "Hey, our dancers don't go on the field, its only the cheerleaders," well… let's just pretend for now because I'm sick and freaking tired of OSU screwing up my plotlines. Imagine they wear cropped tops and short fly away skirts and dance with little shiny red poms that make Brittany happy. Okay? Okay. Thanks and enjoy the (really long) chapter.**

**PS: The tube top I refer to the girls wearing can be found here and I only mention this b/c its super cute and wonder if Texas sells anything like it: ****http : / tinyurl . com / 2ddnhjy**

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* * *

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It was the first week of September and the unofficial end of summer was upon the young adults of Lima. Everyone who wasn't going to Ohio State had left in the weeks prior for their schools which were on the semester calendar. For Rachel, this meant that all her friends from her extracurricular classes and Glee were now long distance friendships, her private voice lessons were the only classes she had for the next three weeks, and she was expected to attend the first collegiate football game of her life that Thursday evening.

As far as Rachel understood the situation, the boys had called Quinn, who in turn called Rachel, and invited the future roommates to come to the game with them that week. Rachel had initially stated that they could sell her ticket and she had only been planning to attend football games once she lived in the area as that made the most sense, but Quinn and Santana were not having that and Rachel eventually gave into her fate of attending the first football game of the season.

The plan, as it had been explained to Rachel, was that the group would leave for Columbus around eight am on Thursday, take the opportunity to explore the campus on a day as lively as game day, tailgate and then go to the game. Brittany would not be with them as she had pom squad duties and Santana would be riding to Columbus with Brittany on Wednesday and meeting up with the group once they got there. After the game the six teenagers would caravan back to Lima, first taste of college fresh on their lips. It sounded good enough to all parties involved, and Rachel had found herself starting to get excited about the day trip.

The Tuesday before the game, Rachel was sitting on her bed with her laptop, scanning through her iTunes as she tried to make three different mixes for Thursday – drive to the game mix, tailgate mix, and drive home mix. Each required upbeat music, but certain songs fit different time frames in particular ways and Rachel was tailoring the mixes to each of these events when her doorbell rang.

Rachel's dad had clients meet him in his home office from time to time, so Rachel gave no thought to the doorbell and kept at work on her project. Because of that, Rachel let out a scream and put her hand to her chest when her bedroom door flung open as Santana barged in, followed by Brittany and Quinn, "Holy fuck, over dramatic much Babs?"

"You ladies scared me, I was not aware that you were coming over today and assumed the visitor was for Daddy. Also, you didn't knock so how would I know anyone would be coming into my living quarters?"

Quinn gave a deep sigh before putting her hands on the end of Rachel's bed and leaning forward, "Speak. Teenager. Berry."

"You scared me. Wasn't, like, expecting you," Rachel said sarcastically to Quinn, smirking slightly as she leaned right back in the direction Quinn.

"Better. Okay, so we brought you a present. You owe B thirty five bucks," Quinn said as Santana threw a shirt she had been carrying at Rachel.

"I got them last week when I was in Columbus for practice! I got lost looking for my car after practice but I wandered into this store and they had all these cute clothes so I got one for all of us. They called it their bookstore, but I just saw lots of cute clothes and tshirts! But I can't wear mine because it doesn't look good with my uniform and I think coach might get mad at me because it's the first game and all," Brittany explained happily as Rachel unfolded the red and white striped tube top.

"It is unfortunate that you got lost, but at least something good came out of the incident, Brittany," Rachel said sweetly as she looked at the top she would never pick out for herself in a million years. She could pay Brittany back for the shirt and then return it, hopefully exchanging it for a sensible OSU polo shirt or something of that nature.

"The three of us are all going to wear them to the game Thursday. The three of us looking cute in our matching tops and jean skirts will be great when we hit up some Greek tailgates, make us pop as a unit," Quinn explained before she reached for Rachel's laptop, looking over the playlists Rachel had been working on, "Wow Berry, you actually have decent music on here."

"Of course I do, I have impeccable taste in music. And, no offense, but I already had my game outfit for Thursday picked out," Rachel said, gesturing to the clothes that had been pulled from her wardrobe and were hanging on her closet door. A black pleated skirt, red Lacoste shirt and grey knee socks were hanging there so that Rachel would be well prepared to get dressed early on Thursday morning.

"Holy fuck, I thought we got rid of all your knee socks Berry, you have got to be kidding me! You cannot wear this to a football game. Especially the first one when it's actually warm enough to show some skin!" Santana ranted as she stalked toward Rachel's closet door, ripping the knee socks from where they were draped over the shoulder of the polo shirt. "You are not wearing this. You are wearing the jean miniskirt we got you at Aeropostale and the tube top with cute sandals."

"I will not! I like the outfit I selected and those socks incorporate the school's colors into the outfit so that I am spirited from head to toe!" Rachel climbed off her bed and approached Santana, reaching out and yanking the socks back from Santana.

The Latina's eyes narrowed and Brittany subconsciously moved to stand slightly behind Quinn, whispering, "Santana is going to kill Rachel and Kurt will win the bet that there was bodily harm before we even move in."

Neither Rachel nor Santana heard this statement, nor did they even register the other two girls in the room as they stared down the other. Santana reached out to take the socks back, but Rachel had a firm grip on them, "Let go of the socks, Stubbles. You are not a knee socks wearing loser anymore. You are a future college co-ed who will pledge a good sorority and not fuck up our greatness as a suite and you will wear the outfit that matches Quinn's and mine and you will look hot."

"You let go of the socks. They are my personal property and I do not appreciate you manhandling them in such a way!" Rachel's voice was getting louder as she gave a firm tug on the socks in her direction, "I will wear whatever I want to this football game and it includes these socks!"

(Brittany whispered to Quinn again, "Did Rachel just call Santana Man Hands? Does that mean we get to start using that name again?" Quinn merely shook her head no, unable to take her eyes off the train wreck in front of her but in no way getting involved. She liked being intact.)

"You are going to wear the tube top and the skirt, dammit! We are going to match the first game of the season at least!" Santana yanked on the socks as well and the moment was beginning to resemble something out of an elementary school's field day tug-o-war event.

Unfortunately, the nylon/spandex blend was not as strong as the traditional rope used in these events and before they realized it, a loud rip sounded through the room and both girls stumbled back. Santana landed on her rear end while Rachel stumbled back and slammed into her wall. Santana now had the elastic tops to the socks in her hands while Rachel was left with the toes.

Brittany rushed to Santana, helping pull her back to her feet and offering to kiss her injury to make it better. Quinn made her way slower to Rachel, reaching a hand out to touch the girl's shoulder, "You okay there?"

Rachel nodded, the wind knocked out of her from hitting the wall before she looked down and realized what she was holding in her hands.

Quinn looked down at the same time and a small smile reached her lips as she reached out and took the destroyed hosiery from Rachel's hands, "Well. Looks like that decides the wardrobe dilemma. No socks means your outfit is incomplete and you have to wear ours. Glad that's settled. See you Thursday morning, Puck will be picking you up at 8." Quinn gave her another pat on the shoulder before nodding to her other two friends and the three former cheerleaders exited the room.

Rachel stayed leaning against the wall for a few moments before she stomped her foot, glaring at the tube top laying on her bed. Sometimes she really disliked those girls.

* * *

Puck hated mornings. Despised them with a passion. His mom's least favorite chore was not vacuuming, laundry or taking out the trash. It was waking up her son. He would do anything to stay in bed, including past incidents of locking and barricading himself into his bedroom.

That was not the case on Thursday morning. Puck was waking up with a purpose. The purpose of going to his very first Ohio State football game. The team he had worshiped since he was a little boy, the team he had posters of hanging in his room, the team he tried to emulate. And he was going to that game as a student. Puck was damn near whistling as he woke up at 7:30 am that Thursday.

Puck threw on his favorite pair of khaki cargo shorts and his red Ohio State jersey (number 2 because they didn't sell number 20) which would eventually be removed and replaced with body paint which was fucking awesome in Puck's personal opinion. Best idea he had heard out of Artie's mouth in the years he had known the guy.

After quickly brushing his teeth, making sure the 'hawk was in perfect form, grabbing a Red Bull from the fridge and loading up his cooler with his hidden tailgating supplies, Puck was out of his door and on his way fifteen minutes earlier than planned. Rachel's house was closest to his so she was the first one to be picked up. Honking three times before he got out of the car, Puck bounded up the walkway to the Berry's front door, met there by Rachel who stopped him dead in her tracks. This was one of those moments when Rachel didn't look like the Rachel he had gotten used to through the years.

Rachel had thrown him off a couple times before. Seeing her in a dance leotard, in her workout clothes, or best of all, in her bikini, could always throw Puck off kilter. But other than the one time years ago Kurt had given Rachel her "makeover", this was the only time Rachel was fully clothed and had caused this reaction in Puck. Well, as fully clothed as he could call this outfit, because there was Rachel in a tube top, a short ass jean skirt and her hair pulled back with a red ribbon headband. Puck saw legs, boobs, curves, and skin skin skin around those sorry excuses for clothes.

After taking a moment, Puck let out a low whistle as Rachel stood there in front of him with her purse and keys in hand, "Damn Rach. You look like a hot ass college student."

Rachel had been nervous putting on the outfit that had been selected for her, but Puck's reaction made her smile and release some tension that she hadn't even realized she had been carrying in her shoulders, "Thank you Noah. I was not feeling too sure in this ensemble, so your kind words mean a lot."

Puck shrugged it off before offering his elbow to her, "You ready to hit the road for your first college game day experience?"

Rachel smiled brightly before reaching out and slipping her arm through his, "Bring it."

The two climbed into the front of Puck's truck and headed on their way to pick up Quinn and Artie. Rachel's outfit made a lot more sense to Puck when he saw Quinn come scampering out of the Jones' residence wearing the exact same thing. Artie was wearing khaki cargo pants and an Ohio State t-shirt, and Puck couldn't lie, he was happy to see that he and Artie would not be matching like the girls seemed to be.

Since Rachel had gotten in the car first and had taken upon herself to bring her iPod converter which she had plugged into Puck's cigarette lighter, the other two were happy to give her shotgun and sit in the back seat for the road trip. It was only slightly after eight when the four soon-to-be college freshmen found themselves on 33 headed south to Columbus.

The ride went quickly as the four all consumed their preferred forms of caffeine (coffee for the girls, energy drinks for the boys), the girls telling the story of the torn knee socks from both perspectives, Artie telling the others that he and Tina had decided against trying to do the long distance thing, and Puck recounting his pride in scaring off an 11 year old boy who had come over to watch a movie with his little sister that week. At some point, Quinn had pulled out temporary face tattoos and a bottle of water, carefully applying the decals to her cheek and Rachel's, impressively causing minimal makeup disruption. They were offered to the boys as well, but Artie said that it might interfere with their later body paint plans so maybe some other time.

Thanks to a gas station stop for some more caffeinated drinks and Puck getting slightly lost on campus looking for the correct lot, it was ten thirty by the time the group pulled into the right parking lot. Another perk of having Artie as a roommate – handicap parking for the football game which landed them a spot in a lot directly outside the Horseshoe, perfect for their own little tailgate party.

Santana and Brittany had made friends with some middle aged men also parked in the lot and Santana was holding a Bloody Mary she had convinced one of them to make for her. Brittany was stealing sips but didn't have her own because despite her lack of common sense at times, even she knew better than drinking before her first college football game dance performance. When Puck's truck rumbled into a spot, the girls said goodbye to their new friends and made their way in the truck's direction.

Puck had gotten Artie's chair from the bed of the truck and was helping Artie from the backseat into his chair when he heard Santana yell out, "Way to be late, fuckers. How hard is it to show up on time?"

"Fuck off Lopez, we had to make a pit stop for some more mixers and they closed off some streets to traffic which I didn't know happened on game day." Puck snapped before he turned and saw that both Santana and Brittany were matching the two girls he had just driven, down to the same face tattoos. "You have got to be kidding me? What is this, your college version of a Cheerio uniform? Can't wear something unless someone else does?" Puck let out with a laugh.

"No, my uniform is college Cheerios. DUH. But I can't wear that until the game, weird rules," Brittany said, shaking her head slightly as she looked down longingly at the duffel bag that was hanging off her shoulder.

"And seriously, this is coming from the young man who plans on painting his entire body from the waist up red and grey this afternoon along with his future roommate while wearing coordinating pants? I'm sorry Noah, but I don't see how our wardrobe selection is considered so amusing and novel to you considering your own decision for the game attire this evening," Rachel said, coming to the defense of the other girls. The outfit may not have been her first choice, but she was there now and it was on her person and there wasn't a whole lot she could do about that now.

"Don't insult the body paint," Artie said, reaching up to high five Puck who quickly reacted, slapping palms solidly without even looking at one another, "Its badass."

Puck smirked, "Damn straight its badass. All I do is badass things."

Quinn stepped in between the feuding factions, happy that Rachel and Santana were on the same side this time as it was far less scary, "Okay, the girls look amazing and hot and you boys will look completely badass covered in head to toe paint later today. Can we just get past this fashion debate and have someone mix me a drink already?"

Puck laughed and nodded, turning back to his truck and his pre-game supplies. Everyone but Brittany filled up a solo cup with their cocktail of choice (Greyhounds for the girls, Jack and Coke for the boys) before locking their cooler in the cab of Puck's truck and setting off to explore for a while. The six teens headed toward campus first, wandering around some of the buildings, Santana and Quinn lamenting the fact that they knew their math class was in one of the halls they passed. It was an issue because they were on the part of campus that furthest away from their dorm and it'd be a pain come winter.

Around noon, Brittany had to be back at the stadium to meet up with her squad in order to get a last minute practice in before getting ready and attending pre-game events. The group walked her back to the stadium, all hugging her and wishing her luck on her first major performance as a member of the OSU Spirit Squad. Santana gave Brittany the last hug, squeezing her extra tight and whispering something in her ear before placing a light kiss to Brittany's cheek and slapping her ass as she turned to walk into the building.

"Is it weird to know that she's the only one of you five that will be on the field today? I mean, I was never on the field except to sing the National Anthem at homecoming Senior year, but you four were always down there, what with Cheerios, band and actually playing?" Rachel commented as the group walked away from the stadium back toward Puck's truck.

"Gee. Thanks Debbie Downer," Santana bit out, crossing her arms over her chest and walking a little faster so that no one would see the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes. Quinn just shook her head, trading off pushing Artie duty to Puck before rushing ahead to catch back up with Santana.

Puck just shrugged at Rachel, "It doesn't bug me, but looks like it does those two."

"They all three tried out. Quinn and Santana tried out for cheerleader but the coach told them they weren't ready for college co-ed. Brittany was the only one to make it." Artie spoke up, shocking both Rachel and Puck. "What? Quinn and I talk sometimes," he defended himself.

"Man, you are full of surprises. But that makes sense why those two are, you know, mental," Puck said, looking at the two girls who had their arms around each other as they walked through the parking lot that was filling up quickly with many tailgates.

Rachel felt bad about unknowingly bringing up a touchy subject, so when all five reunited at the truck, she put on her best happy face and decided she would suggest something she thought the girls might enjoy to take their mind off the awkward moment. While the boys mixed the next round of drinks, Rachel approached the other two girls, "So walking back, I saw a tent that had a flag with Greek letters hanging on it. Theta Kappa Epsilon to be exact. The young men seemed to be highly attractive there and a few were watching you both as we passed by, so maybe we could go back there? They also were grilling and seeing as it is noon and there is a considerable amount of alcohol to imbibe, it might be best to see if they would be willing to grill us up a veggie burger or something of that nature."

Santana just laughed, "Holy fuck Rachel. I don't even know where to start. Just say TKE! There were hotties with food and you want to go back! It's a lot easier!"

Quinn leaned back and stretched out an arm so she could grab her refreshed drink from Puck, "I swear, you're like a walking SAT prep book!" she laughed out before taking a sip.

Rachel just shrugged and smiled slightly, happy that the girls didn't seem to hold her social faux pas against her and were at least giggling about her highly advanced vocabulary instead of snapping at her about it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tailgate hopping around the parking lot. Many of the fraternities and other social and spirit clubs and tents set up. The five made their way from tent to tent, snagging free food and drinks where they could, talking to upper classmen, and routinely making visits back to their own truck for cocktails they preferred.

Santana was definitely the alcohol expert of the girls, and it made Puck grin watching her acting halfway human toward the other girls regarding that topic. She made sure Rachel and Quinn would drink water between each drink, would hover around guys who offered them drinks to make sure they weren't poured too strong, and made sure they ate enough so that everyone was tipsy but far from wasted. She could be a bitch, but she stood up for the ones she cared about and somehow Rachel had started to fall into that mix.

It was about two hours before game time when Puck and Artie decided it was time for the most badass body painting any freshman had ever done at their first game. The five went back to the truck and the boys quickly pulled off their shirts and pulled out the tubes of red paint they had researched online and purchased. They had both decided to paint themselves red from the waist up and write OSU in grey block letters across their chest. Half of their face would be painted red while the other would be grey.

Puck moved Artie from his chair to sitting on the edge of the tailgate of Puck's truck. Quinn in front of him and Santana behind him took tubes and brushes and quickly got into the fun of helping out their friend paint himself head to toe red.

Puck tucked the last brush into the bag, grabbing two tubes of red and smirking as he turned to face Rachel, "No more brushes, Rach. Looks like you'll have to use your hands to slather paint all over the Puckerone's rocking hard bod. I know it's your dream come true, what you think about when you lay in bed alone late at night, hand slipping into your panties..."

"Oh please, Noah. Alcohol has clearly slowed what you think are your 'smooth moves' because I saw you tuck that brush back into the bag," Rachel scoffed, stepping forward and reaching around him into the bag. Standing up straight, she held up the paintbrush triumphantly before holding her other hand out, "Give me a tube, I'll work on your back and you can just get your hands dirty working on your arms and chest."

"Aw, and here I was hoping to get you dirty," Puck grumbled as he turned away from her, opening a tube and squirting some in his hands before starting to rub it on his forearms.

Maybe it was the fact that he was shirtless, maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the outfit, maybe it was everything that had happened that summer, but with a surge of confidence Rachel put her hand in on Puck's shoulder, raising onto her tip toes and leaning forward so that her chest pressed into his back. Whispering just for Puck to hear, Rachel said, "You're going to have to do a lot more than just take your shirt off and hand me a tube of paint if you want to see my dirty side."

And as quick as she had said that, she was back flat on her feet, squirting paint across Puck's shoulders and using the paint brush to spread it evenly.

Puck's recovery was a bit slower and he was almost happy he was facing away from Rachel so that she could not see the look of pure shock mixed with a tinge of lust on his face. Had that really come out of Rachel Berry's mouth? Were those really her boobs against his chest? Was she not wearing a bra under that tube top? Eventually when he snapped out of it, he laughed to himself and went back to spreading paint on his arms, "Fuck Berry, you may not be dirty, but you can talk dirty with the best of them."

"You have no idea," Rachel quipped, smiling to herself as she focused on her work. She finished up his back while Puck completed his front. "Turn around, I'll do the red half of your face and touch up what you missed. We'll need to let this dry before we do the OSU."

With his arms awkwardly at his sides, Puck turned obediently and couldn't help but to stare at Rachel as she concentrated on her job. She was focused on painting, so she didn't notice that Puck was staring at her, first her eyes, then her lips, then her boobs. Definitely not wearing a bra. How he had missed that one in the morning, he wasn't sure, but it was glaringly obvious to him now and all he wanted to do was tug down the strapless top and see the boobs that had eluded him for three years in all their glory.

Fortunately for Rachel, she finished up and took a step back, smiling at her handiwork, "Red is definitely your color, Noah." Rachel stepped carefully around him to not get paint on herself and went to get the grey paint and rinse her brush off in the water bottle the other two girls had used to rinse their brushes off with.

Unfortunately for Rachel, Puck was still focused on her body, just this time it was her backside. Having a moment of brilliance, he smirked as he stepped up behind her, reaching down and slapping his hands on Rachel's ass, leaving red paint handprints to mark where he had been. The print was half on her skirt and half on the skin of her upper thighs, "Red is a great color for you too, Rach."

She let out a scream, causing the other three to snap out of their own painting fun (Artie was painting OSU in red and grey down the girls' upper arms while they waited for his paint to dry). "Oh holy shit, he did not," Santana muttered, watching the small girl round on Puck who was still standing in close proximity, smiling as if he had not a care in the world.

"She's going to kill him and Mercedes is going to win the bet," Artie said knowingly, waiting for the word vomit that was sure to come out of Rachel after that one, berating Puck for his actions.

But the words weren't coming. Rachel's finger was pointed directly in Puck's face, but her mouth simply opened and closed a few times like a fish gasping for air on land. Finally she just put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot, letting out a groan of frustration, "You are an awful person! If this stains my skirt, I'm making you buy me another one, it's brand new! I just took the tags off!"

"Worth it baby. Totally worth it. Anyway, its washable paint," Puck said with a laugh before reaching out and placing a dot of red on the tip of Rachel's nose.

Rachel let out more of a growl this time as she reached up, wiping off the paint with the back of her hand. Turning to look at the other girls, she pouted slightly, "Do I look like Rudolph now?" She then quickly turned around, arching her back slightly to make her small rear end stick out more than normal, "Is it just awful?"

Santana and Quinn could do nothing but laugh before they assured her that it wasn't too bad and that it was actually kind of hilarious and she should leave it as is. Turning again to Puck, she pointed to the cab of the truck, "You. Since you're an awful person who can't be left alone with idle hands while you dry, busy yourself with mixing more cocktails for us while Artie paints my arm. If the drinks are up to everyone's standards, maybe I'll finish you off."

"Oh man, what I wouldn't give to have you finish me off," Puck said with a small thrust of his hips, laughing as he went to do as told. Thankfully, Santana wasn't examining this round's pouring skills and the drinks were strong. With better buzzes for everyone, the body painting was finished and the bright red hand prints on Rachel's ass had become amusing to everyone, including Rachel.

Before heading into the stadium, many pictures were taken. The boys proudly flexing showing off their body paint, the three girls in their matching outfits smiling sweetly, Quinn and Santana sitting on either arm of Artie's wheelchair placing kisses on his cheeks, Rachel bent over slightly with a hand covering her mouth while Puck grinned at the camera, his hands hovering over the bright red prints he had left earlier. That one had turned out so well, the three girls took another picture with Rachel standing in the middle, back to the camera looking over her shoulder as Santana and Quinn smiled and reached for her ass. Rachel even let Artie take a picture in a pose similar to Puck's (only after turning down Puck's self declared brilliant idea that she straddle Artie in his chair and Artie reach his hands around right over the hand prints).

Before they knew it, it was time to finish off the rest of their drinks, fill up flasks ("Trust me, no one ever checks my wheelchair!" Artie promised them), and head in to the game. Sure enough, the five students and their contraband made it into the stadium without incident. Unlike many freshmen, since one of the members of their group was in a wheelchair, their season tickets were on the main level of the stadium. The five students walked through the tunnel and stood slightly in awe of the sight before them.

The Horseshoe was far from full and warm-ups were still happening on the field, but it was so much bigger in person to all of them than it was on TV. None of them had been to a game there before and it was far more impressive than their little stadium back in Lima.

"Well fuck me sideways, this is awesome," Puck finally said, snapping out of it enough to push Artie toward where their seats were.

"Been there, done that, no thanks Puckerman," Santana retorted, linking arms with both Rachel and Quinn and going to their seats as well. Filing into the seats, they were seated with Quinn in the furthest seat in, then Santana, Rachel, Puck and Artie in his chair on the aisle. They were seated in the end zone, but it worked out well because they could see everything, even Artie.

More photographs were taken as Puck pointed out things such as the temporary lights that had been brought in to light the evening game, stories about the players whose jerseys had been retired, and how Jim Tressel was God's gift to Ohio State football.

He was cut off halfway through his story about Troy Smith's Heisman winning season when Santana let out a scream and started jumping up and down clapping then pointing at the field. "There she is! Look at her! She looks so great! Look!"

Sure enough, the cheerleaders and poms had entered the field and set up directly in front of where they were sitting. Brittany was in her red, white and black uniform that resembled her Cheerio uniform, except that it was a shorter skirt and a cropped top. The five friends started to yell and scream Brittany's name as loud as possible, waving their arms and jumping and down in their seats.

This unfortunately confused Brittany, her brow furrowing as she started to turn in circles trying to figure out where her name was being called from. She was looking everywhere but the stands – out to the field, to her fellow teammates, to her coach, to the opposing team, but no one seemed to be trying to get her attention. She was starting to get frustrated when finally one of her teammates stepped over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and pointing to the five frantic teens in the stands.

In a pivotal "ah-ha" moment, Brittany spotted the painted boys and matching girls and raised her small, shiny pom to wave back. The group only cheered louder, no longer waving but clapping for her and whooping out congratulations.

It only stopped when Brittany's coach needed the team's attention to remind them of their pre-game duties. Santana leaned her head over onto Quinn's shoulder, "I'm so proud of her, she belongs down there." Quinn nodded in agreement, reaching her hand down and giving Santana's hand a quick squeeze.

College football was so much more than what Rachel expected. Pre-game alone was amazing. The marching band was spectacular, the entire crowd was cheering together at appropriate moments, the singer who did the National Anthem was subpar but acceptable, and when the team ran onto the field, she could feel just how loud the crowd was in her entire body. She had never heard a noise that loud, and shockingly, she was part of that noise.

The first quarter was just as exciting, Puck explaining the game to her as it happened, filling in the blanks for her when she didn't understand why flags were being thrown or why the ball would get kicked to the other side of the field. They even got on the jumbotron, the camera finding their group of matching outfits and painted boys and staying on them as they spelled out OHIO with their arms (Artie on the end just threw a smile and thumbs up as the odd man of five out).

Things got less exciting for the other three quarters of football. Marshall put up a good fight, but Ohio State was on fire. Puck and Santana went to the concession stand to get sodas for the group, keeping their drinks normal but spiking the other three's drinks using the contraband flasks. The rest of the game served as a drinking game and most of their attention was on Brittany's performance.

Staying through the very end of the game, the group sang the school song before leaving and walking off campus to get a late dinner while they waited for Brittany to finish up her squad duties. It was after midnight when the six were reunited, piled back into their cars, and Puck led Santana's car on the drive back to Lima.

Artie and Quinn had both passed out in the backseat, but Rachel was awake and chatting, keeping Puck company during the drive home. While Rachel had been the first one picked up, she was the last one to be dropped off well past two thirty in the morning. She unhooked her iPod from his truck and turned to look at Puck before climbing out, "Thanks for driving today. I really do appreciate it."

"S'no big. I figure there will be enough home games once we move up there for me to get shitfaced at, I can deal with not drinking for three games. You were fun today Rach, it was cool to see."

She shrugged slightly before turning to slide out of the tall truck, "I have always known I was fun, Noah. I'm just happy the rest of you could realize that today. Get home safe and wash that ridiculous paint off your person. Sweet dreams, Noah." She gave him one last sweet smile before shutting the door and rounding the truck to walk into the house.

Puck just laughed to himself as he watched her red handprint covered ass walk up the path, turning to give him one last wave before she walked in. The front porch light flipped off and Puck pulled his car back onto the road, knowing that he would be thinking about those handprints for a while.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Thanks so much to everyone for the great comments, it makes my day! Hope you enjoy this chapter and here is a link to the dorm floor plan I picked out for the girls. Don't have one for the boys but it's a basic dorm room so a visual isn't as necessary.

Girls dorm floor plan – Worthington Building – R and Q in A, S and B in B – **http : / tinyurl . com / 2cgeb67**

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Two weeks later and three more football games, it was move-in day at OSU. The football games had been similar to the others, although the girls had learned that matching outfits possibly weren't the most collegiate attire and the guys learned that the red body paint didn't wash off quite so easily. But they had figured out the art of tailgating pretty well and had figured out how to stock Artie and his chair with the maximum number of flasks for the game. OSU was 3-0 this season and even Rachel was learning to love the game, or at least everything that came with it.

Rachel had spent her entire life living in the same bedroom in Lima, Ohio, and despite her planning and list making, she discovered that she owned an excessive amount of goods and she had to seriously prioritize what would stay and what would go with her to live in their small dorm room. Most of the new items – bedding, furniture and accessories – had never been unpacked and was already loaded in her father's SUV, but she had to pack up her entire wardrobe, bathroom, photographs and other things she hadn't even considered would be going with her. Finally realizing that it would take two cars to get everything to Columbus, Rachel decided to ride with her father in his SUV and her dad would follow behind in his Prius.

The car ride was an easy and happy one, her father regaling her with stories of his days in college at The University of Kentucky and just how much fun and trouble he had gotten into while he was there. They had raised Rachel to act as an adult at a very young age, but her father expressed just how much he hoped that she did get to college and have some fun and get into (just a little) trouble.

As easy as the car ride had been, getting to campus had ended up being a step short of chaos. Parents were clogging up the parking lots, trying to find space and unload their children's belongings for the next year of their life. It took Rachel and her father thirty minutes just to find one parking spot, her dad just waving from his car saying he'd find something and meet them in the room when he did.

Instead of immediately unloading the car, Rachel and her father went to the check in desk, turning in Rachel's dorm paperwork, making her first rent payment, and getting her key. "Might I inquire as to whether any of my roommates have checked in?"

The RA who was working the check-in desk ran her finger down the sheet before nodding, "Yeah, they're all three already here. Happy move in day and welcome to Ohio State!" It was her cheerful way of saying that they needed to move along far away from her.

Rachel gave a forced smile before going with her father to the car to get the first load of her belongings. Thankfully, there were bellman carts available and the pair were able to snag one and load it up with wardrobe boxes and other large items.

The room was on the first floor of the dorm building, so they were able to avoid the nightmarish elevator line and roll straight to the girl's front door. Using her key, Rachel opened the door and called out, "Hello? We're here!"

If they had thought the parking lot was controlled chaos, the dorm room was complete chaos. Santana and Brittany's mothers had been the ones to drive the three girls and their belongings to Columbus that morning. Their fathers had been unable to take the day off from work and, although Quinn had formed a bond with the Jones family and felt at home living there, she had not wanted to impose on them by asking for help moving.

The five women had gotten all of the items into the room, but nothing was in its correct space. Rachel saw boxes marked kitchen in the living room, articles of clothing in the kitchen, and empty boxes and trash bags strewn around. Underneath all of that was the dorm issued common room furniture – a couch, chair and coffee table. Her father couldn't even roll the luggage rack into the room.

"You're here! Hi!" Brittany called out, bounding from what Rachel assumed was her and Santata's room, leaping with grace over a large brown box to reach the front door and pull Rachel into a bear hug. Brittany's mother, who looked more like an older sister to the girl than a mother, quickly followed her daughter's path and swept Rachel into another hug the second Brittany had let go to move on and hug Rachel's father.

The other three were slower to react. Santana's mother poked her head out of the room, smiling politely and giving a wave before saying, "Hi you two. Sorry, I'm currently in a battle against anything and everything built by Ikea. I'll be out in a minute." She ducked back into the room and she could hear Santana in there as well, the pair of women speaking in Spanish except for a few choice English curse words after a crash of whatever came down instead of going up.

Quinn emerged from the second bedroom, "We're this way if you can make it in here. They didn't have one of those carts when we got here an hour ago so stuff just kind of got dropped wherever."

Everyone started to try to clear a path and after a few minutes the luggage rack could make it all the way through the kitchen and living room and into Rachel and Quinn's bedroom.

The room was a basic dorm – white tile floors, a loft bed, desk, filing cabinet, book case and dresser which were all brown wood, a mattress that Rachel didn't even want to think about who had slept there before and an ugly brown desk chair that just looked painful. Thankfully, Quinn had gotten their rug rolled out, which at least made the room look somewhat happier.

"I took the bed on the far wall, so this one is yours and that closet is yours," Quinn gestured. Their bedroom didn't look as bad as the common space, but that was possibly because it was only Quinn's things in the room so far and Rachel still had to unload.

"That is fine by me. I think the best plan of attack is to just get everything unloaded from the car and then tackle unpacking in the room." Her father agreed and over the next hour, everything had been unloaded from his SUV and placed in either Rachel's room or as close to the appropriate common space as possible. Right around the time they finished with her father's car, her dad had finally found a parking space. It was agreed the two men would use the cart to unload that car and let Rachel start unpacking things in her room.

Rachel's first project was her closet as she decided the wardrobe boxes were large and it would be ideal to get them out of the way first. Quinn was tackling the same project and groaned as the shoe rack she had been trying to put together to hang over her closet door collapsed.

"Let me help you," Rachel said, putting the arm full of clothes into the closet before going over to assist Quinn.

"I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, that's the second time this stupid thing has fallen apart on me!" Quinn exclaimed, kneeling next to the pieces of white plastic that clearly looked as if they were supposed to fit together but didn't seem to be interested in doing so.

Rachel grabbed the instructions and looked them over, and sure enough, the pieces were just supposed to slip into one another but they didn't seem to be fully attaching. "I have an idea," she said before going to grab something they had left in the common room. Coming back with a pink metal toolbox, Rachel smiled proudly, "Who says boy scouts are the only ones who can always be prepared? I have created a toolbox for us to have for necessary moments like this one." The box was popped open and Rachel proudly displayed the small hammer that had been on top. "This will make it work!"

The two girls took turn hammering the pieces of the shoe rack into place and sure enough, the next time Quinn tried to hang it on her door, it stayed. It also was able to hold the weight of her shoe collection which was the real test. They high-fived each other, proud of their first true roommate accomplishment.

The parents only stayed to help the girls for another two hours before they had a lot of the big jobs tackled (TV's were set up, major furniture pieces were constructed and boxes had been moved to their generally correct location) and decided it was time to let their little girls live on their own for the first time as college freshmen. All four parents cried and hugged all of the girls until it just got embarrassing and the daughters basically threw the parents out.

It was then that Santana went to her closet and rolled a large suitcase into the kitchen, "My mom took me shopping last week and she bought some other stuff but said I couldn't unpack it until the other parents left." She grinned as she laid it on the ground and unzipped it, proudly displaying handles of liquor. "Ladies, we are fully stocked."

Drinks were mixed and the stereo in the common room was turned up full blast. For a while, the stress of unpacking and necessity of arranging their new lives took a backseat. They were four young women in college, officially living on their own. No rules, no curfews, no sneaking boys in or hiding hangovers anymore. They could do whatever they wanted. And at that moment, they wanted to drink at one in the afternoon, dance on their couch and coffee table, and celebrate where they were.

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Puck and Artie's moving in process had been slightly different from the girls. Puck's mom had to work at the hospital and his little sister had school, so he was on his own for moving. Artie's dad drove Artie and his stuff up and Puck met them there in his truck. With the handicapped parking, there was no trouble searching for parking.

Since their room was built in traditional dorm fashion (and they were boys), there was no furniture or rugs to be moved in. Clothes stuffed in garbage bags, plastic bags from Sheets n Things full of sheets and towels, a few duffle bags of shoes and underwear, their computers, Artie's sound system, Puck's TV and their mini fridge were all that had to be moved in.

The boys didn't have framed pictures for the walls, just a few random posters that went up with thumb tacks. Products didn't have to jockey for space in the bathroom, just a bar of Irish Spring and two different types of shampoo.

When Artie's dad left, Puck did roll in a suitcase that was stocked in a fashion similar to how Santana's had been. The only thing their slowly cooling mini fridge held at the moment were item's from Puck's liquor bag.

"So. This is college. Huh," Puck said, laying on his bed and looking at the Marissa Miller poster he had hung on the wall between his and Artie's beds. It was four o'clock on a Monday and they didn't know what else to do with themselves.

"This is college. It's weird. I feel like we've been in college for a few weeks now." Artie said, laying in his own bed and looking at the same poster. It was a pretty sweet poster in both of their opinion.

"Yeah, me too man. But I mean, I thought when I got to college there'd just be chicks not wearing bras falling all over me from the second I walked in the door. I didn't see one chick when we were moving in. Or at least one chick I'd do."

"They're here. We've only been actually living on campus for three hours. Give it time. You are living with quite the ladies' man. They'll be at our door in no time," Artie said in his knowing Yoda sort of way that made Puck sit up in his bed and look across the room at his friend.

Artie was his boy. Artie was his friend. But Artie as a ladies' man? "Seriously dude? A ladies' man?"

"Oh yeah. Trust me. I developed my skills through the years, most recently during my relationship with Tina. I've come to realize that I can get away with far more crap than you because I have the chair, and chicks are oddly fascinated by it. All I have to do is pat my lap and ask if they want to hop on for a ride."

Puck let out a roar of a laugh at that one. "Fuck man, if I said that, I'd get slapped in the face!"

"Exactly. Yet I get a chick who climbs into my lap and lets me wheel her around the block going to look at stars."

"Tina fell for that shit?"

Artie got a bit quiet at that one, shrugging and looking away. Before Puck could turn into a gossipy little bitch, his phone started to ring. _Crazy, but that's how it goes. Millions of people, living I spose._

"Sup Berry," Puck answered, smirking at his selection of ring tone for the small brunette.

"PUCK! Puckidy-Puck-Puck-Puck! Whatcha doin?" Rachel said with a giggle, making Puck's eyes widen on the other end of the phone call.

The only times Rachel Berry called him Puck was when she was either pissed as hell at him, disappointed in him, or drunker than shit. And by the way she was saying his name, he had a pretty good feeling it was door number three.

"Uh, Artie and I are just chillin in our room. What are you fine ladies up to?"

"We're having an unpacking party and I tried to hang up shelves and everything keeps sliding off of them and I need you to come help and Quinn says she needs Artie to help her set up her computer and Santana says that you need to bring us more mixers and Brittany says that, what was that Brit?" There was a muffled statement followed by lots of giggles before Rachel spoke again, "And Brittany says that you need to come help her put together her bookshelves because she doesn't speak Ikeakanease!"

Puck covered the phone with his hand and looked across the room to Artie, "The chicks are wasted." He pulled back his hand and answered Rachel, "Yeah, we'll come over. What room are you fine ass ladies in again?"

"126. See you sooooon!" Rachel said in a sing song voice before the phone clicked off.

"Alright Artinator, the chicks are wasted and it sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than being here, so, lets roll."

Artie climbed from his bed into his chair before he looked up at Puck and just shook his head, "Don't ever call me that again."

The guys made the short trek to the girls' dorm, weaving through the people who were still moving in before they found the girls' room. The door was unlocked, so Puck let them in, yelling out over the music as they entered, "If you're naked, don't get dressed on our account!"

Sadly, the dorm room didn't so much resemble the alleged "dorm rooms" he had seen in various pornos through the room. It looked like a bomb of girly shit had gone off. There were parts that looked complete, but other parts were just cardboard boxes with shit poking out of them that Puck had no idea what they even were.

Also, the girls weren't wearing booty shorts and paper thin tank tops while engaging in a pillow fight with feathers everywhere. Instead they looked like they had been moving stuff around all day – messy hair, not much make up left on their faces, but at least somewhat skimpy outfits to accommodate for the heat outsides. And – they were totally wasted from their past three hours of drinking and not eating a thing.

Rachel bounded out of her bedroom, making a beeline for Puck. She ran at him, jumping up and hugging him by not only wrapping her arms around his neck but her legs around his middle, "Noah you came! You're my hero! You have to fix these shelves, they positively cannot keep tilting!"

Brittany stood in her doorway chirping, "Rachel is a koala and Puck is a tree! Koalas are the cutest bears, can we have a pet koala, Santana?"

"No B, those live really far away and we can only have fish in the dorm room." Not that they were really going to be super strict rule followers. The rules also said no alcohol and they had a collection that would make some bars jealous.

Quinn poked her head out of her room and looked at Artie with a full on pout, "Artie? Will you please come help me set up my desktop? I think I've totally screwed things up."

"Of course," he said with a smile, rolling into the room Quinn had gone back into.

Puck didn't even have time to question this because at that very moment, Rachel was still clinging to his body very much so like a koala. "So Berry, are you going to stay like this all night or are you going to get me a drink and let me see this place you chicks are living in?"

Rachel had actually found this to be somewhat comfortable. Puck's arms were around her helping support her weight, his broad shoulders created a perfect place for her to rest her head and he smelled really good. They had learned that if Rachel didn't keep drinking and got comfortable enough, she could be prone to dozing off and it seemed that she was heading in that direction.

So when she only hummed in response to Puck's question, he rolled his eyes and walked over to the couch, letting go of Rachel and letting her fall on the couch, "Hey!" she cried out, looking at him with a pout.

"Get me a drink and let's fix your fucking shelves."

"Oh! Good idea! We should do that!" And just like that, Rachel popped up, went to the kitchen and grabbed one of the few beers from the refrigerator and gave it to Puck. "The shelves are in here," she said before leading him into her bedroom.

He popped the tab on the drink and took a gulp as he followed her. The girls bedroom looked better than the common space, with the girls' beds made and many personal items unpacked. It wasn't perfect, but it sure looked better than most peoples' dorm rooms on their first day. Rachel was climbing up onto her lofted bed and that's when he saw what she had done.

After their dance party and an entire bottle of vodka had been consumed between the four girls, Rachel decided she wanted to hang her two small shelves that would be on the wall right above her bed. There she planned on placing a photograph of her and her fathers, a photograph of the original Glee members at graduation, her alarm clock and her cup from her mother. The only problem was Rachel's skills with a hammer had taken a sharp decline after her second cocktail.

It wasn't just that she hadn't used a level or was just slightly off. No, when Puck looked at the shelves, it looked as though she was trying to make angles for math class out of them. No wonder anything stayed on them.

"Fuck Berry, did you do these things with your eyes closed?" Puck asked as he climbed onto the small twin bed as well, sliding in next to Rachel and taking the hammer away from her.

"No. I just missed a few times and figured that maybe I would be okay just leaving the nails where they landed," she explained with a small pout, reaching for her drink that was in a solo cup which had been balancing precariously on the windowsill next to her bed.

"Yeah… not so much. You sit there and look pretty and keep getting drunk and I'll see if I can fix this, alright?" Puck gave her a wink before handing her his beer and doing his best to remove the small shelves without destroying them so they could be rehung.

"You don't have to be so condescending, you know. Just because I messed up some insignificant little shelves does not mean I am incompetent. Quinn and I did perfectly fine setting up the entertainment center earlier!"

Quinn chimed in from across the room, "Yeah, until your father told us that we had half the pieces constructed upside down and he had to tear them apart to redo everything."

"You are not helping my case here!" Rachel said with a pout, putting her straw to her lips and sipping. She looked like a petulant child and Puck could only shake his head and laugh.

"Don't stress about it Berry. You're good at other stuff. You did the right thing calling me so you don't end up with these things falling on you and crushing you in your sleep."

"They're tiny!" Rachel cried out, looking even more upset.

"And so are you, so it could happen." He reached over, tweeking her nose slightly before turning back to his work.

Rachel didn't say anything, just let out a "humph" noise and sat there quietly, sipping on her drink as she watched Puck work.

The shelves were easy to hang when, one, a sober person was doing the work and, two, a person who know what he was doing and had an eye for levels was doing the work. Puck proudly finished the shelves by putting Rachel's items onto them and grinning. "Done," he said, looking in her direction and seeing that she was glaring at the shelves with contempt.

"Stupid things. I think they just hated me."

"They didn't hate you. You just are drunk." He paused to think about this before leaning closer and speaking in a softer tone so Quinn and Artie couldn't hear their conversation in the small space, "Look at this Berry. I've got you drunk in your bed on the first day of college. Turns out college is exactly what I thought it could be."

Rachel couldn't help the small giggle she let out, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. She knew that she shouldn't find it exciting in any sort of way that Noah Puckerman was indeed in her college dorm room bed and she was very much so tipsy. But at the same time, it sounded like something he would end up doing on his first day of college.

Well, not being in her bed.

Just in a drunk girl's bed.

Not that Rachel wanted him in another drunk girl's bed.

Wait, what? Rachel stopped giggling and looked at Puck who was still smirking at her. He reached over, took his beer back from her and gave her a wink. He then quickly spun his legs around, hopped off Rachel's bed and walked out of the room and toward Brittany and Santana's. "What in the name of cheap Swedish furniture have you two done in here?" Rachel heard him cry out before she let herself lean against the wall, somewhat unnerved by her latest revelation.

Finally convincing herself that she was just drunk and had been single for a considerable period of time, Rachel shrugged it off and hopped off her own bed as well, "I'm going to freshen up my drink, you two want anything?"

Quinn and Artie looked up from her desk, both saying no before Rachel wandered into the kitchen. She ended up going to work in that room, unpacking dishes and cups into cabinets and drawers as everyone else worked in various areas of the dorm. It wasn't until the six students had gotten almost everything unpacked and built, cardboard boxes thrown away and electronics hooked up that they decided to stop for the evening.

Pizzas were ordered and drinks continued to be poured. The pizza didn't do much to help absorb the alcohol, and all six were sufficiently wasted by the end of the night.

"I have something to say," Santana declared sometime around one am, standing up from her spot on the floor with a slight sway. She held her cup in the air and looked around the room, "Here is to a fucking awesome first night of college. We don't have any fucking classes tomorrow, we have a fucking sweet dorm room, we're a fucking awesome crew, and we're going to fucking run this place!" She gave a tip of her cup to denote her toast being over before taking a large swig.

"You say fuck too fucking much," Rachel said, her nose scrunched up before she took a sip of her own drink.

The room froze, everyone looking at her before falling apart into laughter. "Holy fuck, Berry said fuck!" Santana roared, swaying again which turned into a stumble and led her to landing in Brittany's lap.

Rachel immediately flushed as red as her cup, knowing that everyone in the room had heard her state that curse words were a sign of unintelligence many times before. But, deciding this was college, she sat up a little straighter and said with a perfectly straight face, "Fuck yeah I did! Fuckers!"

This had the entire room laughing uncontrollably. Quinn had tears coming out of her eyes, Santana and Brittany were doubled over one another laughing, Artie looked about ready to fall out of his chair and Puck had literally rolled on his side, clutching his stomach as he laughed.

That round of laughter gave the group their third or fourth wind and they started playing drinking games. After a few rounds of Kings, the group started to slowly fall apart. Brittany and Santana were the first to head off to bed, shutting the door behind them and letting Puck and Artie's minds wander slightly. Quinn had curled up on one end of the couch and dozed off until Artie shook her awake so she could move to her bed. Instead of going to her room, she got up and curled into Artie's lap, her head on his shoulder and legs in a ball. Artie was a good sport and wheeled her to bed, leaving Puck and Rachel in the common room alone.

Puck had been on the floor and Rachel on the couch throughout the night. He stood up, reaching a hand down to Rachel, "Alright Queen of the Fuckers, time to get you to bed so I can go home and get myself to bed."

"You're not staying?" she asked with a tone that sounded so sweet and close to innocent, Puck almost just said yes. But, it was Rachel and these were his girls, so he shook his head no and kept his hand extended. She finally took it, letting Puck pull her to her feet before she started to her bedroom.

She stopped at the door, stumbling slightly as she turned and faced him. Giving him a small smile, Rachel stood on her tip toes and placed a small kiss on Puck's cheek, "Goodnight Noah," she whispered before walking away. She walked in and left Puck standing there for a moment before Artie rolled out.

Puck was standing slightly in awe until Artie cleared his throat quietly. Puck didn't look down, just let a smirk slowly crawl across his face before muttering, "Best first day of college ever," before the two headed back to their own dorm.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Sorry this has taken me forever and a day to update (or a week, whatev). It's been a crazy week with last minute job interviews and dealing with my large extended family for my cousin's graduation. But it gave me a chance to think over what I had planned for this chapter and tweek it a bit where I like it a lot more and hopefully you will too! Enjoy!**

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Classes began two days after move in day, and Rachel discovered that she did not know anyone in any of her courses. She had long dreamt of the day when she could be done with everyone from high school who had teased and tormented her for years, but when she walked into her Music Theory I class, part of her ached to see Puck slumped in a chair in the back or Santana glaring at her. But instead, there were about fifty freshman, all in the Voice program with her, who were complete strangers.

It was mostly the same group of faces in her Music Aural Training class, Music History and Music Technology class. Her voice lessons were one on one with a professor (who truly seemed to appreciate her skill for what it was and Rachel liked immensely). Her only hope for having a course with a familiar face would be her General Education Course for the quarter – Late American History – Civil War to Present.

She had compared her schedule with her suitemates but no luck, none of them would be in there with her. When she walked into the large lecture hall which would end up holding over 400 students, she subconsciously crossed her fingers. First looking to the handicapped seating area, she noticed that the one student in a wheelchair was not the one she was hoping for. Her eyes then darted to the very back of the large room, but again, no offensive haircut.

Letting out a sigh, she made her way into the room and made her way to a seat in the center of the room, three rows back from the podium. The classroom was filling up and she was in the process of setting up her laptop and plugging it into the power strip when she felt a body sink heavily into the chair next to hers. "Thanks for saving me a seat, Berry," came out before she could right herself to see the familiar boy next to her.

Puck hadn't planned on being in the Tuesday/Thursday afternoon History course, but after searching , he had seen that his English prof was supposed to be a complete nightmare. Puck quickly dropped that class and picked History up instead. When he came into the lecture hall, he immediately zeroed in on the familiar brunette sitting at the front of the classroom, fumbling with the power cord attached to her nauseously pink laptop.

Rachel sat up straight and smiled brightly at the boy next to her, "Noah! You're in this course as well? Oh that is so wonderful to know! I have not known anyone in any of my courses thus far, but it is comforting to know that I will have a friend to study with and count on for notes on class dates I miss."

Puck just laughed, gesturing to the spiral notebook and pen he had brought with him, "I think it's going to be more me counting on you for notes, but yeah, sure, we can study together."

"You are probably right about the notes," Rachel conceded, reaching over and flipping open his spiral. Inside the pages were pristine; his syllabi from his other courses folded up and shoved into the front pocket. "You have syllabi from four other classes and not a single thing written in here. I am not surprised in the slightest."

"Its syllabus day. First day of class for the quarter. That's all they do. They give out a syllabus, tell you how much you'll have to read, when the tests are and you get to leave early. What is there to write down?" Puck had been explained this wonderful phenomenon that happened the first week of class by an upperclassman TKE he met tailgating. It's why he came with so little to class. Though, he probably would show up the same way for the rest of the semester.

"I find that to be completely inaccurate, other than the fact that we do seem to not be staying the full class time in any of my courses. Some of what the professors tell us on the first day of class is invaluable! Its clues as to what to expect throughout the quarter and on the tests. You can learn so very much!" She turned to her computer, opening up a word document and starting her header for her first day. She had taken a least a page of notes in each of her other classes.

"Whatever, Berry. The only reason to bring a laptop on a day like today is to play Snood while the old dude is explaining all the important blah blah blah."

"You are very wrong. You are going to be so happy to have me as a study partner in this class when the test comes and something from the very first day pops up and you would have missed it because you were ill prepared and had no notes of what was said."

Puck didn't get a chance to reply, as a nerdy looking girl in her mid-twenties walked onto the stage and flipped on the mic, causing a loud thump noise to ring out in the lecture hall. Rachel poised her hands over her keys, ready to write down the words of wisdom that were sure to follow.

The woman cleared her throat before she spoke, "Hey everyone, I'm Tammy, one of the four TA's for this course. There are stacks of syllabi at each of the doors. Grab one, read it, buy the books. Prof. Daniels is in London on vacation still, so class is cancelled. See everyone next Tuesday." And with that, she flipped the mic back off and walked off the stage.

Rachel's fingers didn't even move and her mouth was hanging slightly open. Puck looked over at her and couldn't help but laugh. He had heard that this often happened with the general classes, and the fact that he was right was a huge bonus. Puck reached over, put his finger under Rachel's chin and pushed her mouth closed. "Pack up your shit and lets go. You can buy me a snack for being right."

The room was clearing out quickly, yet Rachel still sat in her seat and scowled at the empty stage before slamming her laptop closed. She started to rant as she packed up her belongings, "I cannot believe this. The professor didn't even show up for his own class the first day and expects his students to respect any sort of attendance policy he may try to implement? What a waste of time for the numerous students enrolled in this course. Could he have not emailed us this information? I am so insulted!" She shoved her laptop into her shoulder bag and threw the power cord in after it, zipping it up with as much force as her small body could muster.

Puck stood and watched her, chuckling quietly to himself. "Chill, Berry. This is a good thing. Everyone else is happy about this. You should be too."

"I came to this university for an education, Noah! How can I be happy that a course is going to be one day shorter than expected, likely meaning that portion of necessary information will now be poorly taught at the end of the quarter instead of spread out properly per an approved lesson plan…" Rachel stood up as she continued to explain her position, though her diminutive size didn't do much to make her seem imposing or serious. Instead, Puck couldn't help but to find her pint sized ranting somewhat cute. Not that he would ever use the word cute for anything. Real men don't say cute.

He cut her off, literally, by placing his hand over her mouth, "Rach. Drop it. We're in college. College students get happy about this. Now let's go get me a pizza roll and you some tofu or sprouts or whatever the hell you eat." He pulled his hand away and without thinking he dropped his hand to grab hers and pull her along out of the row.

Rachel didn't fight in, instead linking her fingers with his, "I doubt we can find a restaurant that will cater to both of our dietary preferences, but I guess we can use this time to our benefit by exploring campus to see if we can find something that will meet our requirements."

The pair made their way out of the classroom, both grabbing a syllabus packet on their way out of the door to enjoy a free afternoon.

* * *

The following week of class took a bit more effort than the first. The classes had actually begun, professors showed up and expected their students to have at least attempted their readings. By the time their second official weekend of college came around, the freshmen were more than ready for it.

The weekend was the first one of the fall without a home football game, so plans other than "wake up, drink, game, drink" were required. It was Friday night at seven and the girls were in their common room, trying to come up with a plan for the evening over dinner. Rachel had ordered a plethora of dishes from a vegetarian Thai restaurant which were still in their containers that were being passed around the four girls who sat on the floor around their coffee table.

"We could go up to the row and see if there are any parties," Santana suggested, but was quickly scoffed at by Quinn.

"What, you want us to get all dressed up and just wander around up and down a street of fraternity houses and walk in randomly if we hear music? Do you really want to be 'those girls'? I veto." Quinn shook her head no to emphasize her point before taking a bite of pad thai.

"I think I heard that someone was going to have a party on the fourth floor tonight," Brittany suggested as she swirled her spoon around in the curry, trying to find another green pepper.

"That will get busted, we're not supposed to have large functions in the dorms that are not sanctioned and to publicize that they have alcohol on the premises is a big mistake," Rachel said with a sigh, slumping back against the couch.

"Well there has got to be SOMETHING in this town to do! It's a Friday night. Its college. People party. We can't assert our greatness if we are not out of this dorm room and meeting people and if we can't assert our greatness this quarter, who is going to want us during rush next quarter?" Santana was getting annoyed with their failure to have big and exciting plans.

"We could call the boys. See if they know anything," Brittany suggested, reaching for her cell phone from where it was sitting on the chair behind her.

"Do we always have to count on those two for our social lives?" Santana asked with a roll of her eyes.

"It wouldn't hurt to ask. I mean, if they know of something to do, isn't that better than sitting around here getting fat?" Quinn gestured to the food and the girls looked around at the half empty containers, nodding their agreement.

Brittany dialed up Puck's cell phone number, smiling brightly when he answered, "Hey Puck! Not much, we just finished eating and we have no plans for the night and wanted to see what you two were up to. Sammy party? Is that the weird guy that lives across the hall from you? It's a frat? Do you have to be named Sammy to join? But why would you want to go there, your name is Puck!" Brittany frowned before holding her phone across the table to Rachel, "He wants to talk to you."

Rachel was holding back her laughter as she took the phone from Brittany, "Hello Noah. You got invited to Sammy? That's wonderful! Are you sure you can bring all of us as your guests? Well okay then. A what type of party. Well that sounds interesting. What time? Why don't you boys meet us here and we can all walk together. Wonderful, we will see you and Artie at nine thirty. Goodbye, Noah."

Rachel hit the end button and passed the phone back across the table to Brittany, "Noah was invited to a party at Sammy, a frat he's really interested in. It's apparently a professor and school girl party?" Rachel was slightly confused by that theme. Did that meant her professors would be attending this party as well? Not how she imagined Puck would want to spend his Friday night, but he had expressed his desire to join this fraternity so maybe he was willing to sacrifice his evening in order to impress his potential future brothers.

The other three girls had a different reaction to that statement, all perking up and smiling. Santana hopped up from her place and started toward Rachel and Quinn's room, "That's perfect! We can all get our costumes from Berry's closet! Short skirts, unbuttoned shirts and heels!"

Quinn had started to close the containers of food and Brittany carried them to the fridge in the kitchen. "We need to do pigtails too!" Quinn called out so that Santana could hear her in the other room.

"Why would we wear such attire if professors will be there?" Rachel asked, still on the floor fairly confused by what was going on.

"It's a naughty professor and school girl party. The guys dress up like professors and the girls wear slutty school girls' outfits. So basically what you wore in high school with lower cut tops and higher heels." Quinn explained, closing the last container of stir fry and handing it off to Brittany.

Suddenly Noah's excitement about the party made sense to Rachel. She hopped to her feet and went to her closet to join Santana, "Do we want to do solid colors or plaid? Personally I feel plaid would create a better Catholic school girl image."

Santana grinned as she emerged from the closet with four plaid skirts in hand, "One step ahead of you Berry. Now you got any of those contraband knee stocks stashed away anywhere?"

Puck had raided Artie's closet that night for his costume. Dressed in black dress pants, a white button up, a blue and yellow sweater vest, fake thick black rimmed glasses and his Chucks (what, he wasn't going to wear his one pair of decent dress shoes to a frat party), he pushed Artie, who looked like his regular self in black pants, white shirt and suspenders, to the girls' door.

In what had become his routine, Puck knocked twice on the door before letting himself and Artie in. "Please tell me someone is topless!" he called out as he walked into the common space between the two doorways to the bedrooms.

"Five minutes too late, Puckerman," Santana told him, walking out of her bedroom wearing Rachel's pink and grey plaid pleated skirt, a white button up shirt that was tied under her breasts, a pink bra, pink knee socks and black high heels. Her hair was in braided pigtails and she had bright red lipstick on along with her regular makeup.

"Holy hell, Lopez. If you showed up to class like that you'd give a professor a heart attack!" Puck said with a laugh, his eyes blatantly checking out Santana's body.

She only smirked before stepping around Puck and leaning down to press a kiss on Artie's cheek. Leaving red lip prints behind, she smirked and ruffled Artie's hair a bit, "That completes your look. We're still working on Rachel, get a drink and we'll be out in a minute." She threw one last wink before sauntering off into Quinn and Rachel's room, shutting the door behind her.

The boys did as they were told, each grabbing a beer and setting up camp in front of the TV in the common room. They were watching a rerun of "Ice Road Truckers" and almost done with their second beer by the time the girls emerged from the room. Each of them wore a similar look, although Brittany was wearing a green and black skirt and Quinn was wearing a blue and yellow skirt.

Noting that there were only three slutty girls in front of him, Puck's brows furrowed, "Where's Berry?"

Appearing somewhat nervous (the two vodka cranberries had not helped calm her down), Rachel slowly emerged from her room. In a red and black plaid skirt, white tied shirt, black lace bra, black knee highs and red high heels, she looked like a far sluttier version of the girl Puck knew. The low pigtails which had been curled tightly made her look sexy instead of innocent. And her red lipstick with black smoky eyes were the finishing touches that made Puck's mouth go dry and pants tighten slightly.

"I think I had a dream like this once," was all Puck could manage to get out, and Rachel's cheeks immediately reddened. Her arms were wrapped around herself trying to cover some skin up, but it only helped her bra do its job of creating more cleavage for her.

"Is it too much? I've never been quite this exposed while going out in public," Rachel said, letting go of herself and reaching down to smooth her skirt out slightly.

"The only difference between this and high school is your stomach and boobs. You look perfect for the theme and I'm sure some little Jewish boy will end up coming in his pants when he sees you. Trust me," Santana reassured Rachel for the tenth time that night.

Quinn crossed the room, stealing Artie's beer from him and taking a sip. She gestured towards Rachel with the can, "You look amazing and trust me, I'm sure we'll be far from the sluttiest girls at this party. I saw my sister's pictures from college that she used to try to hide from my parents and one Halloween I swear all she was wearing was a bra and underwear. You look hot, just own it!"

The girls' reassurance of Rachel had given Puck a moment to calm down. He cleared his throat before speaking, hoping his voice came out normal, "You look great, Berry. Your tits are perky, your legs are fucking hot and when you bend over, I can't wait to see what you've got on under that skirt. All the makings of a fucking hot outfit."

"All of you ladies look amazing. Enough to make any young boy or grown man's Catholic school girl fantasy a reality," Artie said as he reached up to steal his beer back from Quinn.

"The Artster is right. Let's get our asses to this party now so everyone can see me and him roll in with the hottest girls there." Puck chugged the rest of his beer, leaving the empty can on their counter on his way to open the front door for the group.

"You have seriously lost your touch when it comes to nicknames, Puckerman," Santana commented as she and Brittany walked through the door together, attached at the pinky.

Quinn pushed Artie and both just shook their heads at Puck. "Dammit," Puck said softly before looking back into the room at Rachel, who was still standing in front of her bedroom door. He knew that if he didn't get her out the door at that moment, there was a definite chance she would bolt back into her bedroom, lock the door and not come out. "You ready to hit the town, hot stuff?"

Her head snapped up to look at him before she gave him her brightest (and fakest) stage smile and nodded her head, "Let's go."

* * *

It was about two am and Puck was making his way to the beer trough for another round. He had been in the Sammy house for about four hours and he could already tell that this frat would end up at the top of his list. It was a Jewish frat, but the guys weren't puny and nerdy. They were cool guys for the most part, a lot of them reminding him of the guys he used to be on a basketball team with at the J. They had more beer than Puck had ever seen in his life outside of a liquor store. The girls at the party were all hot as hell, most wearing skirts just as short as Rachel's and tops that covered even less.

He found the two guys he had known as a kid who had invited him that night and they had taken Puck around, introducing him to other actives from their pledge class. From what he could tell, the guys seemed to like him too. Most complimented him on the fact he brought the four hottest freshman girls at the party. He was proud to say that they were his crew and that he would bring them to their tailgate the next week.

No one ragged on him for bringing the kid in the wheelchair, in fact, they seemed disappointed that Artie wasn't Jewish nor was he going to rush. Apparently Artie had mastered the act of performing a wheelie while taking a beer bong and that was all it took to impress the brothers.

As Puck popped the top on his eighth Natty Light of the night, he felt his phone vibrate in his pants pocket. A text message from Artie was waiting, letting him know that he had headed back to the dorm and he wasn't going back alone. If Puck could find somewhere else to sleep that night, it would be preferable.

"Way to go Abrams," Puck muttered to himself before lifting his head to look around the party. Santana and Brittany were spotted first, the pair dancing on a table in the corner of one room. They were grinding on one another and there were about ten guys gathered around watching their little show. If there were someone to bet with, Puck would put money on the fact that the pair would not be sleeping in their own beds that night.

Puck had a harder time finding the other girls. Quinn seemed to have disappeared and Rachel was so short, who knew if Puck would ever find her. He finally made his way outside to the deck and found Rachel there, but she wasn't alone. The two guys from the J that Puck knew had found Rachel. Obviously, since Lima wasn't the most hopping Jewish community in the nation, they had seen Rachel around from time to time and were apparently catching up.

This shouldn't have bothered Puck, but when one of the guys reached out and pulled on Rachel's pig tail, he felt the sudden urge to join the conversation.

"See you guys found my girl for me, thanks. She's such a midget I was worried I'd never spot her," Puck said casually as he walked up to the trio, slinging his arm around Rachel's shoulders.

Rachel, who had lost count at her fifth cup of trash can punch, swayed slightly into Puck's embrace. In her drunken daze, she looked up at Puck and scowled, "I am four inches taller than someone who is legally defined as a little person, thank you. And I have four inch heels on, so that makes me eight inches taller!"

"You would look that one up, wouldn't you?" Puck teased, squeezing Rachel a bit closer before he looked up to the guys standing across from him. The pair of older boys was staring at him and Rachel with a look that only could be described as confusion.

"When did this happen?" the older of the pair, Jake, asked. His friend, Adam, was just as confused. They may have been two years older than Puck and Rachel, but they remembered as well as anyone else how they both were in high school. Sure, there were no more slushy attacks by the time they graduated, but they chalked that up to the fact that Puck was too busy impregnating other girls in his grade.

"Oh, sophomore year. Noah bought me a grape slushie!" Rachel explained happily, not fully realizing what Puck had called her or what the older boys were questioning. "But we've been extra close since Noah found out he was coming to OSU. I'm just so happy to have him here. And the other girls! We're all the best of friends now!" Rachel was slurring her words slightly and talking with her hands. The red punch sloshed over the lip of her cup and a far portion landed on her white shirt and exposed chest.

Puck found himself squeezing Rachel's shoulder as this happened, having to physically restrain himself from leaning down and cleaning up the mess with his tongue. Rachel gasped as she looked down at herself, "Oh no! What did I do? I need to clean this up immediately!" She thrust her cup into Puck's hand and immediately started to untie the knot in her shirt. "I need club soda! Who has club soda?" she asked in a panicked tone, looking around as she pulled off her shirt.

"You have that in the dorm, Rach. Maybe we should get you home," Puck suggested, impressed with his drunken level of self restraint as Rachel was now only wearing a lacy push up bra on top.

"You are SO smart, Noah! Let's go! Lovely seeing you boys!" she chirped before she started to make her way through the crowd of people to walk through the house to get out the front door. She was only decent on heels this tall when she was sober. When she was drunk, Puck was pretty sure she might take out someone else or break her own ankle.

Puck shrugged to the two guys, smirking slightly before chasing after Rachel. He threw both of their drinks to the floor (where they joined what seemed to be hundreds of other discarded beers and solo cups), and caught up to her just as she was about to walk out. "Wait up Rach! Don't we need to find the other girls before we run out?"

She shook her head, grabbing his hand and pulling him out the front door, "Santana and Brittany are together and Quinn already told me she wouldn't be home tonight. Lets goooo!" she whined, dragging out the word as she tugged on his hand once again. "The longer it takes to get me home, the less likely this stain will come out and then I'll be sad and likely mad and nothing good can come from that!"

Puck shook his head before following along behind her, "Alright alright, have it your way. But can you at least put the shirt back on now that we're on the street?"

"Don't you like my breasts, Noah? I thought you would like them exposed like this. You did always have a fascination with touching them back in high school." Rachel looked up at Puck with a look that was somewhere between drunken stupor and sexy teasing.

Puck groaned as he grabbed the white shirt from Rachel's other hand. He draped it across her shoulders and turned her so that they were face to face, "Berry, I think your tits are perfect. Not too big, not too little, would fit great in my hand and better in my mouth. But I don't want every asshole in Columbus to get a chance to see them tonight with you walking around wearing only a fucking sexy as hell bra. So just cover up til we get home, 'kay?"

"Fine. But I don't have to wear a shirt when I get home, alright? Or these awful shoes. They make my feet hurt horribly," she said, looking down at her feet with a frown.

"How 'bout this. I turn around, you hop on my back, and you let me give you a piggy back home. That way your feet won't hurt and no one can see your tits because they'll be covered?" _And pressed tightly into my back_, he thought to himself.

She didn't need to hear this suggestion twice, walking around Puck and not even waiting for him to bend down before she hopped up onto his back. He adjusted her as her legs wrapped around his waist and arms around his shoulders. He could feel her breath against his ear before she whispered, "Take me home, Noah."

If he could have sprinted to the dorm, he would have. Instead he walked the few blocks as quickly as he could without dropping her or looking like a complete idiot. When they got to her room, she handed him a key and he unlocked the door. Sure enough, they were the only two in the room.

Rachel hopped off his back, kicking her heels off into the kitchen and pulling the shirt from around her shoulders. She opened the fridge and frowned, realizing that the girls had used the last of the club soda the night before. "Crap," she said softly as she closed the door. "My shirt will be ruined," she whined, looking over at Puck with a pout on her lips.

Puck was trying to focus on the shirt problem, but it was very hard. There was Rachel Berry, in a sexy bra and short skirt, remnants of hot ass makeup on her features and pigtails helping to cover her breasts. Everything about her from head to toe screamed 'Fuck me Puck and fuck me now! Here on the kitchen counter!' But her mouth missed that memo and only wanted to talk about the stupid shirt. "We can get some bleach tomorrow," he finally was able to get out.

"I suppose you're right," Rachel agreed, dropping the shirt onto the counter and walking back toward Puck, "You're really smart. Bleach and piggyback rides. I think I'd be lost without you tonight." She stumbled slightly due to her intoxicated state, but tried to cover it up as though she meant to lunge into hugging Puck.

Wrapping his arms around her, he tried not to think just how easy it would be to pop open her bra right now (one handed too, he had skills) and truly have this girl half naked in her kitchen. Instead, he leaned his head down and pressed his nose to the top of her head, "It's what I'm here for, Rachel."

"I like when you call me that," she said, lifting her head and looking up at him. They stared at each other for a brief moment that felt quite heated before she broke it. Taking a step back from him, she realized his button up was sticking to her breasts. "Oh no, I'm all sticky still!" She took off away from him, headed into her room.

The only way he could think of to describe the way she moved when she was drunk was that Rachel Berry scampered everywhere. Well, actually it was somewhere between a scamper and a scurry. Something similar a squirrel in his backyard. He couldn't help himself when he followed her.

He could hardly handle what he saw when he found her again. With the bathroom door open, there was Rachel with a damp washcloth, wiping the sticky punch from between her breasts. Ideas of licking her clean came to mind again as he stood there with his hands useless at his sides in her bedroom. Puck made no move toward her, but he didn't walk away either.

Feeling his eyes on her, Rachel turned and at least wasn't so drunk as to not blush at the way he was watching her. But she didn't stop her movements either, keeping her eyes locked on his as she continued to drag the wet towel across her chest.

Puck cleared his throat and moved his hands to his pockets, shifting slightly so that his pants would feel more comfortable in that moment. "So Artie told me I can't come home tonight. Met someone at the party. Would it be cool if I crashed here?"

Rachel nodded as she threw the washcloth back into the sink, "Of course. You can sleep in my bed as I don't know how comfortable Quinn would be with you sleeping in hers and our couch is nowhere near comfortable for sleeping at all." She flipped off the bathroom light and walked back into the bedroom. "Do you need something to sleep in?"

Puck shook his head as she approached, not moving his hands from his pockets because he really did not trust himself in that moment, "Nah, I can sleep in my boxers if that's okay."

"That's perfectly fine. Go ahead and get in bed, I'm going to get a water and some aspirin so that I don't feel awful in the morning. Would you like some as well?"

He only nodded, watching her leave the room. "Fuck me," he muttered to himself, finally freeing his hands so that he could strip out of his professor wardrobe. Leaving everything in a heap on the floor, Puck climbed into Rachel's bed and pulled back the sheets. He was just starting to notice how the pillow smelled just like her shampoo when she walked back into the room.

She handed him a bottle of water and two aspirin which he quickly took. He placed his bottle of water on one of the shelves he had hung before turning to look back at her. "So are you going to sleep in Q's bed?"

Rachel smiled slightly as she shook her head, "Nope." She didn't say anymore, instead reaching down and slowly unrolling one knee sock off her leg. She repeated the action with her other sock before standing up straight and looking Puck in the eye. She didn't falter once as she reached around to the back of her skirt, pulling the zipper down and letting it pool at her feet. She stepped out of it and walked to the door of her room, shutting it and flipping the light off.

Puck's eyes fought to adjust to the darkness, the only light coming through the half open blinds. He could make out her barely, moving back towards her bed. He then felt her climb in next to him and whisper, "Shove over." Puck scooted back toward the wall and rolled onto his side facing her. Rachel climbed under the covers, clad only in her lacy bra and panties, and laid down with her back to Puck. "Goodnight, Noah," she said as she reached back, grabbed his hand and pulled it around her body.

He was frozen. Puck, The Puckerone, Puckasaurus, Puckmeister, Puckster, Pucky Puck. For all his game, he didn't know what to do with an underwear clad drunk Rachel Berry in the same bed as him, pressed against him, and pulling his hand to her flat stomach just below her bra. The only thing he could think of was to say, "Night, Rach," and lay his head down on the pillow next to her. They'd still be almost naked in the morning. He would be able to see more of her then and wouldn't feel guilty about her being wasted the first time he touched her boobs. That was the truly badass thing to do in this situation because badasses did not take advantage of drunk girls. At least that is what he kept telling himself as he dozed off.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** This was too much fun to write. It all came so quickly and a lot of that was thanks to everyone's comments. Way to keep my motivation going, much appreciated! Here's the morning after that a lot of people asked for, enjoy!

* * *

Puck's mom explained to him at a young age that life wasn't fair. He was seven years old and at the end of the worst week of his life. His dad had left the weekend before, his baby sister wouldn't stop crying which was keeping him up at night, he and Finn had gotten in trouble for breaking a window when they were playing baseball in the street, and that Friday morning when he woke up, he was covered in small red itchy dots. Now this wasn't just any Friday morning. No, it was the Friday morning of field day. "It's not fair!" he said over and over again (and he wasn't crying, because he was the man of the house now and real men don't cry. He just had something in his eye).

His mother put him in a bathtub full of oatmeal and ran her fingers repeatedly through his curls, "No, Noah, it's not fair. It's a horrible lesson to learn at your age, but life isn't fair. It never will be." She kissed his forehead and left him in the thick mixture to soak away the itch.

That lesson had reared its ugly head again and again throughout Puck's life, but most frequently on the mornings after he drank heavily. Rather than being able to sleep through the dehydration, cotton mouth and nausea, Puck always woke up extremely early. No matter how late he went to bed, he was guaranteed to be awake by seven a.m. And Puck loved to sleep in, hangover or not, so this was a prime example of life just not being fair.

True to form, that Saturday morning Puck could feel himself waking up at a time he knew would be way too early. Not happy about it, he squeezed his eyes closed tightly and burrowed his face into his pillow. Only, it didn't feel like his pillow and it didn't smell like his pillow. Pulling himself closer, he nuzzled his cheek around before it hit him. This was definitely not his pillow. It was soft, warm skin.

His eyes didn't stay squeezed tight for long. They flew open and in the early morning light, he could see very clearly that the pillow he was snuggling closer to was actually Rachel Berry's well toned and tanned upper back. His arm was still wrapped around her and, without even realizing it, in his sleep his hand had moved up to grope her breast.

'_Holy fuck, I'm feeling up Berry. Three years of not being able to touch her boobs and here I am, second fucking base. Holy fuck!'_ he thought, unable to help himself from giving a small squeeze. Just as he expected, her breast fit perfectly into his hand and the small noise she made was even better.

Slowly, he pulled his hand away because it was just as wrong to feel a girl up in her sleep as it would have been for him to do so the night before. He routinely blamed Beth (only in his head, never out loud) for the fact that he had grown somewhat of a conscience in the past two years.

He sat up and found his water bottle from the night before. As he chugged down the water, he kept his eyes on the girl in bed whose legs were still tangled with his. When he sat up, the sheet moved down exposing more of Rachel's upper body. The bra was as sexy as he remembered from the night before, but the top of her black lace thong (THONG!) was an added bonus.

Rachel didn't have the same problem as Puck and she was completely passed out. He leaned over slightly and could see that her eyes were shut and her mouth was slightly parted as she breathed slowly. When she was completely silent like this, Puck found her even hotter.

Rachel Berry being hot was never an issue to him. She had always been hot. The only problem was she would open her mouth and all he could think of was shoving a sock in there to get her to be quiet. She had gotten somewhat better in the past few weeks. The girls had really loosened her up and she was open to experiencing everything college had to offer instead of bitching about how wrong everything he seemed to do was. All of that had upped the hotness factor. The lingerie was the cherry on the top of a very sexy ice cream sundae.

He was finishing his water and contemplating whether Rachel had already owned this sexy stuff or if that had been part of the shopping spree and whether Brittany and Santana had helped her try everything on when Rachel rolled over, turning onto her back and letting her head roll toward where Puck had been laying.

Puck knew he shouldn't touch. He really shouldn't. She was sound asleep. Sure, they had made out a few times during high school and yeah, they had laid in bed together all night half naked and of course, he woke up hard when he felt her ass pressed back against him. But he really shouldn't touch her.

Except she was there. With her hair in mussed pig tails and her lips parted just slightly in this sexy way and her tits right in front of him. He threw his now empty water bottle to the floor and really, honestly, in no way could help it as his hand came down in a way that his fingers lightly grazed across her stomach.

Her mouth twitched slightly, but she didn't stir otherwise so he figured he wasn't busted. Reaching down again, he slowly started to drag his pointer finger up and down the center of her stomach from the top of her underwear to the bottom of her bra. Her skin felt so soft but he could also feel her muscles from yoga or dance or whatever crap she did.

He looked up and noticed she was still out of it so he went back to exploring her stomach. His finger traced the curve of her rib cage, the slight "V" of her hips before it dipped into lace, the underside of her bra, the sharpness of her collar bone. From there he dragged his finger down her sternum, between the valley of her breasts down to her belly button.

He was drawing circles around her belly button when he heard a soft but thick voice speak, "Noah? What are you doing?"

His head popped up and sure enough, at some point in all of that, she had woken up. Her eyes were barely open and although he could tell she wasn't fully awake yet, he knew he was totally busted. "Uh… nothing?"

"Feels good," she said with a small sigh before turning her head to face toward the edge of the bed, eyes closing again. Puck let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Did she just go back to sleep? Did she not realize what he was doing? Could he maybe, just maybe, get away with this and have her think it was some fucked up dream when she woke up? Maybe it was going to go his way.

But, since life wasn't fair and Puck knew that all too well, it wasn't that easy. About five seconds later, Rachel's eyes flew open and she turned her head to look up at him again, "NOAH?" she cried out, sitting up so that the two of them were face to face. "What on earth are you doing in my bed? And where is your shirt? Where is MY shirt? Where are my pants for that matter?" she groped for the sheet, pulling it up to cover her chest.

"Rach, I walked you home from the party last night. You didn't want to wear a shirt. You told me not to sleep in Quinn's bed or the couch, but to sleep here. Then you climbed in and we totally did it." He couldn't resist. It was just too easy.

"WE DID WHAT?" she cried out, pulling back the sheet and looking down her body as if there would be a visible sign that she'd had intercourse the night before.

"We totally did it. In your bed, on your desk, in Quinn's bed…" he kept the lie going, trying his best to keep his poker face and not wince at how her voice rose another octave every time she spoke.

"While I am no blushing virgin, I am far from some harlot who would get intoxicated and come home to my dorm room and have sex with you in my roommates bed," she shook her head, looking across the bedroom at the aforementioned bed. It did not show any signs of what Puck told her, instead looking just as pristine as Quinn had left it the night before. "Wait…"

She turned and looked at him, noting his smirk before she reached up and slapped at his bare chest, "You are vile, Noah Puckerman! Making me think that I slept with you multiple times last night while heavily intoxicated. Rude rude rude!" She accentuated each word with another slap.

Puck started to laugh, reaching up and catching her wrists so she couldn't hit him anymore, "Sorry, it was just too easy, Berry! So you're not a virgin, huh?"

"You would only care about that," Rachel huffed, trying her best to keep glaring at him and not laugh or yawn.

"What can I say? It's my favorite topic." He threw her a wink as he started to rub his thumbs up and down Rachel's wrists where he was still holding her, "We came home, you told me to sleep in your bed, you stripped down and climbed in next to me. You passed out about five seconds later. Nothing happened." He decided it was in everyone's best interest if he didn't mention the whole feeling her up in the middle of the night thing.

She ducked her head slightly before looking up at him, "I do like to cuddle when I'm drunk. I climbed into bed with Quinn last weekend after the game." Quinn had woken up in the middle of the night with Rachel attached, arms and legs wrapped around Quinn's body. Quinn had to push with both her arms and legs to wake Rachel up and get her off of her.

"I'll remember that in the future. You're not so bad to wake up to," he told her, letting go of her wrists and sliding his hands up so that they covered hers. Their fingers linked together and both of them looked down at their hands. "We are two good looking Jews."

"We definitely are. I would say you're not so bad to wake up to, yourself, but after my reaction, I'm not so sure you'd believe me."

He chuckled, looking her in the eye again, "Well, maybe next time you'll react better."

"Next time?" Rachel questioned, her head cocked to the side slightly.

"Yeah," his voice was soft and he started to lean forward slowly. Their faces were already so close and morning breath be damned, everything else about her was perfect.

She started to lean towards him as well when she felt her stomach roll. Countless cups of punch the night before on top of the drinks they'd had before leaving the dorm were not making for a good combination at seven thirty in the morning. "Oh God," was all Rachel was able to get out before she slapped her hand over her mouth, fought to detangle herself from her sheets and hop off her bed.

Puck snapped up straight, realizing that Rachel had far from an iron stomach as he watched her perky little ass sprint the short distance to her bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet in time to throw herself down and let out a retching noise.

"Not fucking fair," he muttered as he too untangled himself from the bed and hopped off. He walked into the bathroom and knelt down beside Rachel as she hugged the toilet. He carefully pulled her pigtails back and tied the two into a knot so they wouldn't fall back into her face. Her stomach was empty but she was still dry heaving. Puck had been there before and knew how not fun that was.

As she continued to heave, he stood up and retrieved the wash cloth from the sink where she had left it the night before. He ran some cool water over it before wringing it out and going back to Rachel. He ran it over the back of her neck a few times before leaving it there and standing, "I'm going to go get your water. Just sit here, k?"

She barely nodded her head as he left the room. It was a few minutes that felt like hours before she slumped over to sitting on the floor, leaning her back against the wall. Puck was sitting on the edge of her bathtub, holding a three fourths full bottle of water. "Drink this slowly. You should have drank the whole thing last night," he told her.

"I don't know if that would have done much good. That punch was pure sugar," she said between sips. "Ugh, this is just awful for my throat."

"It wasn't just sugar, it was fucking Everclear, Rach. You gotta be more careful with that shit. It tastes like nothing but it messes you up. Hell, you took your shirt off and were running around the party in just your bra."

She groaned, vaguely remembering doing something similar to that. "Did everyone see?"

"Nah. Just me, Adam and Jake. You were still more covered up than some other chicks so I'm sure it's not a big deal." He got up and moved over to sit next to her on the floor. Slipping an arm around her, he rubbed her shoulder slowly, "You wanna keep sitting here or feel like moving back to the bed."

"The tile feels so cool and I just need another minute," she said honestly. This had been why she never drank excessively in high school. Her first time getting drunk had been on a summer trip to Europe with her fathers between junior and senior year. A few other students staying in their hotel had invited her out for the night and with her dads' approval, she went out. Three bottles of wine later, Rachel was puking in the bushes next to the Spanish Steps in Rome.

She discovered that drinking could be fun until she reached the point where she was vomiting on historical sites, so she did allow herself to have a cocktail or two at parties during their senior year. And tailgating, Santana was always there making sure she paced herself and didn't go too hard. Apparently last night she should have stuck closer to her suitemate because Rachel had not felt this awful since those steps.

Puck filled the silence by humming some random song quietly and continuing to rub her shoulder. His hangovers weren't that bad anymore and typically could be eased with greasy food and electrolytes. When he was a freshman in high school, however, he used to drink anything that had alcohol in it and had many a hangover that were similar to Rachel's now and he hoped he was helping.

After ten minutes or so, Rachel took a deep breath and reached up, using Puck's shoulder to push herself up to a standing position. "I need to brush my teeth," she told him as she made her way to the sink.

He stayed where he was, taking the time to enjoy the view in front of him. There was Rachel, still only in her black lacy bra and black lacy thong, brushing her teeth like it was nothing. He liked the way her boobs jiggled a little as she brushed, he couldn't lie. But a small part of him liked that she was okay with him being there with her like this. There was a distinct possibility she was still drunk from the night before, but he chose to ignore that part.

Eventually Puck joined her at the sink, reaching around her for the bottle of mouthwash. Once they both spat it out, the pair made their way back into the bedroom. "I think I'm going to go back to bed, Noah," Rachel said somewhat shyly, not quite sure how to handle the moment.

"Is that an invitation or a polite way of kicking my ass out of here?" he asked her with a slight laugh in his voice.

"Well. I really don't know, honestly. What would you like to do?" Rachel clasped her hands in front of her and took a step closer to Puck. They were still a few inches apart but close enough that she could feel the heat from his body.

He reached his hand out slowly, tracing his fingers up her side as softly as he had that morning. His hand slipped around her back and he pulled her close to him, "I wouldn't mind…"

He was cut off when the door to the bedroom swung open, slamming into the wall loudly, "Holy hell, Berry, wake up I have to… What on EARTH is going on here?" Quinn cried out as she barged into the room.

Puck and Rachel flew apart from each other, eyes wide and looks that screamed 'BUSTED' on their faces. Of course, that only lasted a few minutes before they realized what Quinn was wearing. She stood there in what only could be defined as the "walk of shame" look. Her hair was still in braids, barely, and her makeup had all seemed to migrate to below her eyes. She was wearing her button-up shirt, now buttoned instead of tied, with a pair of boys' basketball shorts. Her feet were bare and she was carrying her heels, knee socks and skirt.

"What's going on with you, Fabray? What douche did you go shack up with last night that sent you home looking like this?" Puck got out as he started to laugh. Rachel didn't quite laugh, but there was a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth as she stepped sideways, hiding her body somewhat from Quinn's view with Puck's body.

"He isn't a douche. Can't say the same for you, standing half hard in your boxers in my bedroom. Did you two sleep together last night?"

"No," Puck said at the exact same time Rachel said "Yes." He turned to look at her, both of their eyes widening as they realized what they each had said.

Rachel started to explain as Puck moved away from her, going to his clothes and grabbing his shirt to hold in front of him to hide his junk from Quinn. "Noah slept here last night in my bed but we did not have sex," Rachel clarified before darting toward her closet to grab her robe. If he could cover up, so could she.

Quinn entered the room completely, dropping her things on her desk before turning and looking at the other two people in the room. Rachel was blushing, Puck was smirking, and she had seen just how close the two of them had been to each other when she came in. She didn't buy anything Rachel just told her for one second. But it was way too early and she wasn't in the mood to actually deal with it right now. Puck was there so she wasn't going to get the goods out of Rachel and she wasn't going to explain her night in front of him. Plus, it'd be easier to do all at once when Santana and Brittany got home. "Whatever. I'm home now and I want to crawl in bed and go back to sleep. Can you two not sleep together in the living room or something?"

Puck looked over at Rachel, who was bright as a tomato by this point, "I think I'll just head back to my place. Since it's the time for walk of shames and all, maybe the chick who Artie took home will be out of there."

"That is probably for the best," Rachel said quietly, watching as Puck put his clothes back on. He left the button up undone and carried the sweater vest as he shoved his feet back into his Chucks. "I'll walk you to the door."

Quinn had crawled up onto her bed by this point and was under her covers, "Bye bye, Noah! Hope you get as many honks on the walk home as I did!"

The pair walked to the front door of the common space and Rachel noticed her discarded clothes from the night before in the kitchen. "Thank you for taking care of me last night and not letting me make too big of a fool of myself," she said softly as Puck reached for the doorknob.

"S'no big. Someone's gotta watch out for you." He didn't open the door yet, turning to look at her. Gone was the lingerie, in its place was a puffy pink terry cloth robe and the Rachel he had known for so long. "Get some more sleep then go get a Gatorade and some greasy ass fries or onion rings for lunch. It'll help."

"Okay. I'll keep that in mind." Rachel looked down and then back up at Puck, "See you later?"

"'Course," he said before leaning in, lightly brushing his lips against hers. It was hardly a kiss, but after the missed moments that morning and the fact he could still feel the shape of her breast in his hand, he couldn't resist. "See you later," he repeated as he pulled away from her and let himself out the door.

Rachel stood there for a second after the door closed before she reached her fingers up to her lips. She could still feel his lips there but at the same time it was so light she wasn't even sure that it counted as a kiss. Her hand stayed there as she walked back into her bedroom.

Quinn had turned the TV on to a rerun of "Pretty Woman" but was paying more attention to Rachel as she walked back into the room touching her lips and in a total daze. "Didn't sleep with him my rear end," she muttered to herself but smiling the entire time.

Puck's walk of shame wasn't that bad. He smiled and waved to every car that honked at him as it drove past. While the girls he passed on the sidewalks kept their heads down and moved quickly, Puck held his head up in pride and was damn near strutting. Damn straight he was out the night before and he woke up to a hot chick in lingerie. Suck on that losers driving around at eight a.m. on a Saturday morning.

He grabbed two Gatorades, a hot dog and a bag of Fritos from the convenience store he passed before going back to his dorm room. Unlike Quinn, he quietly unlocked and opened his door. If Artie's chick was still there, he would go hang out in the TV room for a few hours. But Artie was there alone, sitting on his bed and watching a rerun of "Gladiator" on their TV.

"Hey man, already kick out your prize from last night?" Puck asked as he walked into the room, tossing one of the bottles to Artie.

"Yeah, she woke up early. Said she wanted to get home before her roommates did. Keep things on the DL. Where did you end up crashing last night?"

"At the girls' place. Rach was the only one to make it home. Not surprised about San and Britt, but who knew Quinn had it in her? I mean, hasn't she been back to her Virgin Mary ways since it didn't work out with Finn the second time?" Puck didn't gossip, he wasn't a fucking chick, but he had been kinda surprised by that one.

"Who knows, man. Maybe she just found her type," Artie said quickly before gulping down some of his Gatorade.

"Whatever. Oh shit, this is the best part! Turn it up," Puck instructed the man with the remote as he settled onto his own bed and ripped open his chips. Action movies, junk food and electrolytes. Just what the doctor ordered to clear his head after a crazy night.

* * *

Both Rachel and Quinn dozed off during the movie and slept until around noon when Santana and Brittany came home. The two girls had bags from Sonic full of tator tots, onion rings and grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Wake up bitches," Santana said loudly as she entered the girls' bedroom, throwing a bag onto each of their beds. "You're sleeping your day away when there is greasy food to be eaten and a game watching party to go to tonight!"

Quinn groaned and threw one of her smaller decorative pillows at Santana's head while Rachel chose to sit up and look to see what Santana had brought her. "Oh this looks amazing."

"Damn straight. Carbs and grease will suck up the rest of the leftover alcohol and the new alcohol we're going to drink will get you to one hundred percent. Get your asses out of bed and come eat in there." Santana picked up the pillow that had missed her completely and threw it back at Quinn. "Now!"

The two roommates dragged themselves from bed and joined Santana and Brittany in the other room. Their outfits looked similar to Quinn's and Rachel couldn't help but to giggle as she sat down on the floor and put her food on the coffee table.

The girls had also brought Gatorades, but Brittany was busy in the kitchen pouring about a third of each one out and quickly replacing it with vodka. She swore it was the perfect hangover cure and Rachel was willing to try anything at that point.

Santana and Brittany were regaling them with stories of their evening at the Sammy house, as well as their morning at the house, when Quinn interrupted them, "Rachel slept with Puck last night!"

Rachel just about choked on a tator tot, eyes wide as she stared at Quinn who wore an evil grin on her face. Santana and Brittany were staring at Rachel with their mouths hanging open, waiting for an explanation. Rachel coughed a few times before she pointed her finger at Quinn, "Yeah, well she went home with some random guy last night from the party and is still dressed in his clothes!"

"Who cares, you slept with Puck!" Santana cried out.

"You two could have Sammy babies!" Brittany chirped, clapping her hands.

Rachel groaned, covering her face with her hands and shaking her head, "No. Not like that. We merely shared a bed for what I'm assuming was about five hours. We literally slept together, but there was no penetration or anything!"

"I call shenanigans. You two didn't even kiss? I saw how you two were this morning when I came in," Quinn accused before turning to look at the other two, "Rachel was in her bra and thong and Puck was in his boxers just about ready to go and they were all over each other."

"You exaggerate so much, Quinn Fabray, it's like I'm speaking with Kurt! We were in a simple embrace, we were not 'all over each other' as you claim."

"You are ignoring my question, Rachel Berry," Quinn mocked Rachel's tone as she spoke, "Did you two kiss or not?"

"Not," Rachel said defiantly, though her face didn't quite match her tone. Her eyes looked down and she fought a grin.

"You so kissed!" Santana laughed, falling against Brittany slightly, "Holy crap. This is fucking awesome."

"It's not very good to lie, Rachel. We can tell and that's bad," Brittany said as she leaned her head on top of Santana's.

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the three girls grinning at her. "I hate you all."

That caused the other three to burst into a fit of giggles, clapping and laughing as they started to discuss the alleged 'signs' that they all saw this coming. Rachel chose to sit quietly, glaring as she munched angrily on her lunch. There had been no signs. Nothing had happened for there to be signs about. And even if something had happened, there were still no signs. Rachel was convinced of that because she was a little bit psychic, and if there had been signs, she would have been the one to see them.

The three eventually moved on to a new topic and started discussing where they would go to watch the away game that night. But Rachel was left sitting in her own world, wondering if maybe, just maybe, there had been signs and whether this whole event was just another one of something more to come.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: **Only 2 hours past getting an update in during the weekend as promised. Close enough! Hope y'all enjoy!

* * *

Rachel had not been avoiding Puck. That was completely out of the question. She had merely been busy for the past few days. She had opted to watch the game at the Delt house with some guys Santana and Brittany had met, then she tried to complete all her work for the week on Sunday, and classes on Monday had overwhelmed her schedule. Those were perfectly legitimate reasons as to why her phone rang through to voice mail every time he called and that his texts and gchats went unanswered.

At least that was going to be the story Rachel was sticking with because honestly, she wasn't sure how she felt about things with Puck that weekend. Yes, Rachel was a grown woman who owned her sexuality and Puck was a very attractive young man. They had kissed before, so this really was nothing all that new. But between what they had been wearing and the almost moments and her roommates' practically constant ridicule, Rachel couldn't help but to over think and relive every moment of Saturday morning and Friday night that she could remember.

This was how Rachel made it to Tuesday afternoon without speaking to Puck once since he left her room. There was no choice now, however. Seating charts had been filled out the class before and Puck was assigned to sit next to her.

Rachel had made it to class about fifteen minutes before class was scheduled to start, reviewing her notes regarding the reading for the day and getting her computer set up. She hoped that Puck would be late and they wouldn't have a chance to talk before the lecture began. No such luck because while she was typing the header on her document, he made his way down the aisle toward his seat.

"Hey Rach," he said with an up-nod before taking his seat. Unlike what he had predicted, Puck had in fact brought his laptop to class. Though, this wasn't so much for note taking purposes but more for game playing and gchatting purposes. It was the only way these hour and a half Tuesday/Thursday courses were tolerable to him.

"Hello, Noah. How has your day been today?" she asked politely, turning to face him as best she could in the uncomfortable wooden seat.

Puck shrugged as he started setting up his laptop, "Been alright. Boring class, boring class, and now I'm here."

Puck had tried talking to Rachel a few times over the weekend. He wasn't needy or clingy or anything like that, but he thought it might be fun to watch the game together. He found out from Brittany they were going to a party at a guy's place that she and Santana had met at Sonic (while they were there with other guys) and he didn't really feel like dealing with that. He and Artie had ended up back at the Sammy house watching it there. Puck called Rachel on Sunday to see if she'd want to go grab lunch, but Quinn via gchat had informed him Rachel was locked in the quiet study room at their dorm. He had stopped by the girls' dorm room on Monday because he was going to eat at their dining hall since it had better food. Santana was the only one there and she came with him to eat dinner. Over the meal she let it slip that Rachel was trying out a dance class at a new studio Brittany's coach had recommended.

Tuesday there was no avoiding him and they were both trying to be polite as the lecture hall filled up. "Well, I'm glad you're here. It's nice to see you are taking your college curriculum more seriously than high school and actually showing up," she said.

"Yeah, well, it's still early in the quarter. You never know," he said, looking up from plugging in his computer to throw her a smirk. "And, ya know, figured if I didn't show up, I'd never hear from you again. You fall into a black hole or something after Saturday?"

Her cheeks flushed and she bit her lower lip as she shook her head no, "I've just had a very full schedule. It took me a while to recover fully from feeling poorly Saturday morning and since I had procrastinated, my work load on Sunday was quite full."

"Suuure," he said in a teasing tone before nudging her upper arm slightly with his elbow, "It's no big, don't stress over it." He turned back to his computer which had fully started up. He started up his internet, opening a tab for gmail, facebook and espn. While he did this, he continued to speak, "So San asked me all last night at dinner how you were in bed. She wanted details."

"I have told her repeatedly that we did not sleep together!" Rachel responded, perhaps a little too loudly as a few classmates that were sitting around them turned to look at the pair. Puck started to chuckle and she swatted at his shoulder, "Stop laughing! That does not help the situation."

Her efforts to quiet him were futile, because Puck couldn't help but to laugh at this situation they had fallen into. He wished he would have fucked Berry, it probably would have been crazy amazing. The chick gave her all to everything she did and was so high energy. Rachel in the sack would probably put every crazy ass cougar to shame. Instead, they had really and truly only slept next to each other and not a single one of their friends seemed to believe that story.

"Me laughing may not help, but you screaming that out to everyone in this classroom doesn't help either," he pointed out. "I told Santana that but she said that she knew me and some other crap I tuned out so I should stop lying to her and let her know if you like to be in control on top or if you'd rather be under me getting fucked hard enough to leave bruises."

If Rachel thought she had been blushing before, it was nothing compared to how red she was after he said that. "I… she… none of that is any of her business, regardless of whether or not you know the answers to that question."

"Wouldn't mind knowing that answer," Puck said, throwing a small wink in her direction and trying to keep himself from bursting out laughing again at her embarrassment. "Don't think San would mind knowing either, maybe she has a thing for you."

"She does not!"

"If she does, can I watch when she gets you into bed?"

"No you may not watch us in bed!" Rachel exclaimed before she realized what she had implied with her statement. Covering her face with her hands, she let out a groan of embarrassment.

Puck reached over and grabbed her wrists so that he could pull her hands away from her face, "Calm down, Rach. Just teasing you. No big. It's what friends do."

She let him pull her hands away, smiling as she felt his thumbs starting to rub circles on her wrists like he had a few days ago. It was so small but so soothing to her at the same time. "I know. I've just been getting it from all of the girls since you left on Saturday."

"They'll lay off eventually. Just wait it out a few days and they'll find something else to gossip about. It's how they work."

The professor had entered the lecture hall by that point and turned on the mic, "Alright, let's get this started. We left off last week discussing the Battle of Fort Sumter…"

Puck figured it was time to open a word document and try to take a few notes. But between writing down definitions, he noticed his Chrome window blinking at the bottom. Clicking, he smirked when he saw what was there.

**Crazy:** Noah, I appreciate your kindness today. I feel that due to the fact that I was an only child and lacked many close friendships during my formative years, I tend to not deal well with teasing from people I care about. Yes, I have extensive experience being teased, but that was never from people I considered to be my closest friends. Although we have known each other for years, I feel as though it has only been in the past few months that I have found true friends, particularly in you. I understand that good natured teasing is vital to friendship and will do my best to respond in a more positive fashion in the future.

Puck smirked. Only she would write instant messages like that. He was starting to reply when he saw that she was typing some more.

**Crazy:** You have me saved in your google contacts as "Crazy"? Noah, I find that mildly offensive. I have a perfectly clean bill of mental health. My therapist said so.

**Crazy:** While it is true that I have a slightly compulsive need to control situations and be in the spotlight, I am still considered perfectly sane.

He had to reach a hand up and fake a cough to cover his laugh at that. After clearing his throat (and copy/pasting those last two lines into his new facebook status), he got back to her.

**Puck:** i changed ur name to that soph yr when you were sending us countdown 2 sectional emails three times a day

**Puck:** u just need to chill out when we are all goofin around. make a joke or 2 back.

**Puck:** and next time one of them fucks up, give them hell until they scream and remind them of this. not a fuckin thing theyll be able to do bout it.

It took her a while to get back to him since she was actually taking notes. Puck was on checking out baseball scores when he saw the tab flashing.

**Crazy:** I think I could handle doing something like that. I will have to be prepared with something good regarding Quinn's mystery man from last weekend or Santana's continual promiscuity. I feel as though both of those topics are fair game after their relentless teasing. Though I don't think I could tease Brittany. She says mean things sometimes, but I question whether she realizes what the implied meaning of her words is.

**Puck:** who knows.

**Puck:** hey, u busy after class? maybe hang then grab dinner?

**Crazy:** I'm sorry Noah but I'm afraid I will have to turn down your offer. Tonight is the information session for recruitment and I will be attending with the girls. I have to hurry home after class, get dressed and then go. There's a small mixer afterwards so it is our first opportunity to put our best foot forward.

**Puck:** mixer? booze?

**Crazy: ** No, punch and cookies. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed at official panhellenic functions, especially those held on campus.

**Puck:** lame. why do u want to join again?

**Crazy:** We have covered this many times, Noah. I will not recount these reasons once again when I should be taking notes regarding the blockade.

When she called him Noah on gchat, he was sort of curious as to how she had listed him in her contacts. He leaned over, peeking at her screen and sure enough, there was "**Noah**" instead of Puck which was how he had things set up.

He'd never admit it out loud, and sure as hell not to her, but he did like it when she called him Noah. It was like her thing for him. And he called her Crazy. Not that it was a bad thing (most of the time). It was just what he called her. Couldn't that be a term of endearment or whatever? He thought so.

After getting down a few lines of notes, Puck was back to the internet, playing Mafia Wars on facebook. He and Artie had made it their personal mission to attack the other guys from glee as many times a day as possible. He had just wiped out Matt when the gmail tab blinked again.

**Crazy**: I would, however, be free for dinner and "hanging" on Thursday after class if you would be so inclined.

**Puck:** damn, rach, u asking me out on a date? i didn't know u were that kinda gurl

**Puck:** just to make sure things are clear from the get go, i don't put out on the first date. ;)

**Puck:** unless you really want me to

**Puck:** b/c i have no prob kicking ice queen out of ur room so i can rock your world.

**Crazy:** You are vile, Noah Puckerman.

**Crazy:** For the record, I am more than positive you "put out" on first dates. I have heard that from many reputable sources. I believe it is me you need to worry about not "putting out" on the first date.

**Puck:** so this is a date?

He heard her huff next to him and Puck couldn't help but to turn and look at her. Everything about her face read angry and frustrated. Except for her mouth. Her lips were tugging at the corners upwards just slightly. She knew he was funny as shit. No matter how offended good girl she wanted to pretend to be.

**Crazy:** I was merely wondering if you would want to get dinner at an off campus location on Thursday after class as I am completely sick of dorm food already and I could not spend time with you when you asked me first.

**Puck:** still not answering the ? but whatev. thurs sounds good. wear something low cut. and a short ass skirt. i could do some damn dirty things to u in one of those skirts.

**Crazy: ** You are impossible to deal with sometimes, Noah Puckerman. You are completely distracting me from getting notes on this lecture. How are we going to be able to study lectures if you continue to behave this way whilst sitting next to me?

**Puck:** i could distract u with everything i just said from hawaii. if I wanted to distract you when im sittin next 2 u…

Puck hit enter on his statement and before she even had the chance to read the second sentence, his hand snaked under the armrest that divided them and found her leg. She was wearing a blue button up shirt dress to class that day, so as Puck ran his fingers up and down her thigh slowly, it was skin on skin contact. He only touched the skin that was exposed, never pushing up the hem of her short skirt or doing anything terribly explicit that might make her scream while their professor was ranting about Confederates three rows away.

Her pulse was racing and she knew that she should slap his hand away, scoot further over in her chair, screech at him, pinch him, kick his shin, something. But instead Rachel kept her fingers poised on the keys of her laptop, eyes trained on the screen, and bit her lower lip. His fingertips were rough from playing the guitar and football and whatever else boys did that made them so, well, delicious. Delicious was the only word she could think of to describe Puck's fingers dancing across her skin mere inches from beyond dangerous territory.

They were in class, in a public place, she should not find him or this situation _delicious_. Repugnant, infuriating, annoying, yes. Delicious? No. Though, some other words were starting to flood her mind. Intoxicating. Tender. Sexual. Arousing.

Puck looked out of the corner of his eye just in time to see her release her lip from between her teeth, only to have her tongue dart out just slightly as to lick her lips. Well damn. Whether she realized it or not, she was just as distracting in class. In order to keep the power in their little game, he pulled his hand away abruptly.

**Puck:** and THAT is how I distract u

No reply came, Rachel remaining still for a few moments before she just switched over to her class notes and tried her best to write a few of the last things the professor said down. Puck figured he might as well, and they both pretended to be good students for the last five minutes of the lecture.

Class was over and they were both packing up their computers before either of them said anything.

"So Thursday…"

"Noah, that…"

They both chuckled before Puck spoke up again, "Kick some ass tonight, those bitches will be fighting over you if they're smart. I'll see you Thursday." He leaned over, placing a small kiss on her cheek before giving her a wink and walking out of the row.

Rachel sat there clutching her bag for a moment longer before letting out a breath. She had a date with Noah on Thursday. A date she had asked him on whether she meant to or not. And he had completely just gotten her hot and bothered by touching her leg for five minutes in class. "Well, crap."

* * *

The girls all had about two hours after their last class to get back to the dorm, all four shower, do their hair, do their makeup, get dressed and walk across campus to the Ohio Union where the meeting would be held.

Autumn weather was in full force and although it was pleasant during the day, as soon as the sun went down there was a definite chill in the air. Quinn had pulled an outfit from Rachel's closet and laid it out for her, which Rachel both appreciated and found amusing. Yes, these girls she was living with had been groomed for sorority life from an early age and had more knowledge about what sororities would be looking for and expecting. But at the same time, Rachel was reminded of being in kindergarten when her fathers would lay out her clothes on her big overstuffed arm chair every night before she went to bed.

The outfit she was wearing was so obviously Quinn. A pastel flower print dress with a long grey cardigan sweater over it and a brown woven belt to cinch in the sweater and accentuate her tiny waist. With a pair of two inch nude pumps and her hair done in a braid that draped over her shoulder, she looked like a smaller brunette Jewish Quinn.

Rachel pointed this out to her roommate as the group walked to the Union, but Quinn merely scoffed at the thought, "You look amazing Rachel. It's a perfect casual evening outfit that looks fashionable but conservative all at the same time. That is how your first impression needs to be on these girls after the meeting."

"But I look like I raided your closet," Rachel pointed out again, looking between her own floral print dress and Quinn's similar dress.

"You said the same thing at the mall the day we bought it. It doesn't matter. There will be fifty other girls there tonight in similar dresses and possibly one in the same dress since we got it at anthro. So you just need to get over it and know that you look amazing and have the confidence that you have reminded us daily about for the past three years to wear it better than anyone." Quinn had been a cheerleader for the majority of her life. She could give one hell of a pep talk. "If you have confidence that you look the best then you'll have confidence that you are the best and that is what these girls want. The best."

"Fine. But can we not sit next to each other in there? At least Santana and Brittany can break up the continuity of our practically mirror image looks."

"Whatever, Berry. Just smile and try to act normal when we get in there, okay?"

The group got to the Union and found where the meeting would be held. There was a table to check in and get name tags near the entrance before entering the large room. Chairs were set up facing a long table where the Panhellenic counsel would later sit and introduce themselves to the Potential New Members (PNM's). The presentation was only about a half hour long, each officer explaining a bit about her job and giving information about the benefits of going greek and various activities scheduled throughout the year.

After the information session, more girls who were actives in the sororities came into the room and did their best to mingle with the PNM's while everyone drank lemonade and ate cookies. It was a far cry from the girls' first greek experiences at the tailgates and school girl party, but it was what they all expected.

"We cannot just keep standing here talking to each other, we have to go mingle. I could have done this shit at home with a fucking cocktail. Find girls from our houses," Santana scolded her friends. The four of them were standing in the middle of the room, people all around them, but rather than meeting actives were simply talking amongst themselves.

"What about me? I don't have a house," Rachel asked, reminding the others again that she did not have the privilege of being a legacy like they did.

"Go talk to the Jewish girls. And that other one you talked about with the harp. And our three houses. Those will be your best bets probably," Quinn told her before they all went their separate ways.

Rachel did as she was told and after some wandering around and careful nametag reading, she had found plenty of great women to talk to. The women of AEPhi were lovely young Jewish ladies that Rachel immediately clicked with. Most of them were used to being outnumbered in their hometowns as well and that had been an easy conversation to have. There were also two girls Rachel met that were from New York City and adored musicals almost as much as Rachel.

The women of AXO were not as musical as the founders of their sorority had hoped, but Rachel still found herself liking the girls she met and talked with from that house. Their philanthropy was to work with a local battered woman's shelter and Rachel loved that they held quarterly parties for the children at their house. It sounded like a great cause and something Rachel could see herself getting involved with. The girls also seemed very nice, real and down to earth opposed to superficial like many of the sorority stereotypes Rachel had heard through the years.

Rachel's plan was to get a refill on her lemonade before seeking out either a Kappa, Theta or Pi Phi to talk with. Two girls were standing near the table as Rachel walked up to fill up her cup. The girls were attempting to speak in hushed tones but failing miserably. It was not Rachel's fault that she had impeccable hearing.

"Did you see the preggo legacy? She's cute and all, but I can't believe we're going to have to take a mom into our house," one whispered to another.

"She's not knocked up anymore, according to Shelly she gave the kid away like two years ago and everyone just pretends it didn't happen anymore."

"But, like, everyone knows about it. Hell, I found out last spring when her mom sent in her legacy announcement."

"I heard that Anna talked to Marlene and some advisors from Nationals and we might be able to get away with cutting her. Her mom isn't that big of a donor anymore and we can say that being a teenage slut is not the type of reputation Kappa should be associated with."

Rachel could only stand there for so long filling up her cup without it being glaringly obvious that she had been eavesdropping. She knew the second she heard someone talking about a legacy that had been pregnant, it had to be Quinn. Sure, statistically there could likely be others, but when they mentioned Kappa, Rachel was positive of it.

Looking around the room, she spotted her roommate. Quinn was picture perfect, the poster child for sorority life. Her blonde hair was pinned half up, her dress and sweater fitting perfectly. She smiled and laughed politely but her eyes showed just how truly happy and in her element she seemed to be.

No one talked about Beth because it was hard. If Quinn or Puck brought her up, sure, everyone listened. And they both had photographs of her they kept. But it didn't seem normal to bring her up on a regular basis. Why cause that pain to her friends? Why cause that pain to Rachel that her mother had found a replacement? Why keep opening a wound instead of letting it heal naturally.

Rachel resolved that she would discuss the issue with Santana at a later date, but now was neither the time nor place. Crossing the room, she approached Quinn quietly and waited for a lull in the conversation before stepping up to the group and saying anything, "Hope I'm not interrupting."

Quinn seemed genuinely happy as she looped her arm through Rachel's, "Of course not! Ladies, this is my roommate, Rachel Berry. Rachel, this is Anna, Katie and Shelly. They're all Kappas and Shelly and my mother were pledge sisters at Arizona State. We grew up together because they were the two sisters from Ohio."

"Lovely to meet you all," Rachel said, trying not to visibly wince as she heard two familiar names. "Quinn has told me so many wonderful things about the Kappa house and its members, it's hard not to feel similar affection for your house."

"Well, Quinn and I were practically raised in this group of women, it's hard not to love them. She's a wonderful legacy and I'm sure will make a fine addition to the house," Shelly said, a saccharine sweet smile on her face before she took a sip of her drink.

"We do have a particular fondness for our legacies. It just seems that year after year these women are some of our best new members since they were typically raised with values Kappa holds near and dear," Katie followed up. "Are you a legacy to any house?"

"You know, I am not quite sure if my birth mother ever was in a sorority, I should probably ask her about that. But I was raised by my two gay dads, so I doubt that whatever house they were in, if any, would be beneficial to my recruitment process."

"I'm sorry, birth mother and two gay dads?" Katie questioned, giving a look that normally would send Rachel into a rant about love, nurture over nature, and the ACLU.

But instead, she gave a smile to match Shelly's earlier one and nodded, "Oh yes. My fathers hired a surrogate to birth me and raised me in a wonderful home with impeccable values. They taught me that honesty and loyalty are two of the most important things. That a good reputation is valuable, and if you slip up, that reputation can be rebuilt and repaired. That good people are truly good people at the end of the day, regardless of mistakes along the way."

The three actives were looking at her strangely before Anna cleared her throat, "Well that's lovely. Not to cut you off, but we must mingle with other women here tonight so it does not seem as though we are favoring one legacy unfairly. You understand. Wonderful to see you again, Quinn, and nice to meet you Rachel."

The girls exchanged goodbyes and when the older girls had made their way into the crowd, Quinn released herself from Rachel and turned quickly at her. She was glaring and speaking through clenched teeth, "What the eff was that, Berry? Good reputation? Your birth mother? Are you kidding me? You are so lucky I'm a legacy and it is virtually impossible that having a weird roommate could screw this up for me, but you're killing your chances getting in too!"

Rachel shrugged, trying to downplay it, "Sorry if what I said upset you, Quinn. I never thought about it but I very well could be a legacy and it just slipped out. I must just be slightly off my game tonight."

"Yeah. You must. I'm going to go find San and Britt, I'm ready to get out of here. Go wait by the door and don't be weird to anyone and screw more stuff up, okay?," Quinn snapped, turning on her heel and stalking off to find the other friends.

Rachel waited by the door, sipping the last of her drink as she watched the women around the room. Some seemed so genuinely nice to her and others made her question if she was just jumping into the deep end with a bunch of Cheerios out of uniform.

She had doubts about the houses for herself, but she saw how happy Quinn was. This was what she wanted and where she would fit in during college. She had lost cheerleading and Rachel knew as a friend, she couldn't let Quinn lose Kappa too. That meant one very important thing – Rachel and Santana were going to have no choice but to put all of their differences aside and figure out a way to work together to fix this. And that thought scared Rachel down to her very core.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN:** Dude. So I fail at updating in any sort of regular intervals. I house sat all last week and my plan was to lay out all day and write all night, but unfortunately the house had cats and I basically spent 6 days in a Benadryl coma. Then this weekend was one of my best guy friends from college's wedding so it was a 3 day long shit show where I personally drank 4 bottles of champagne on Saturday night. I'm finally out of my hangover enough to get this written, so sorry again for the wait! Hope y'all like it and I have an idea for a one-shot I hope I can get written in the next few days, keep an eye out!

* * *

Wednesday night was a pretty low key night around the dorm. Quinn had gone off to the library to study for a quiz that she would be having the next day in her geology class and Brittany had pom practice. This provided Rachel with the opportunity she needed to talk to Santana alone.

Knocking on the door frame of Santana's room, Rachel spoke softly as to not startle Santana from her reading, "Hey Santana, do you have a minute? I wanted to talk to you about something that happened last night…"

Santana turned around in her desk chair which faced away from the door to glare at Rachel, "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that too. Q told me what happened. Gay dads and values? To the Kappas? Are you kidding me?"

Rachel held her hands up and stepped into the room, "I had a reason, if you would let me explain myself."

"What, you're a loser who ignores everything we tell you only to torpedo yourself by being the freak of nature you've been your entire life?"

"This is not the time for personal attacks…"

"Like hell it is!" Santana exclaimed, standing up and pointing a finger at Rachel, "You may not think too much of the sorority life, but me and the other girls really want this and you cannot go be a moron who can't handle social situations and screw it up for the rest of us!"

"I know it is! That's why I said what I did! They're trying to cut Quinn!" Rachel practically screamed the last line so that she could be heard in case Santana tried to cut her off again.

Santana's hand fell back to her side and she stared at Rachel for a moment before speaking softly, "What do you mean they're trying to cut Quinn?"

"I was refilling my punch glass when I heard two actives talking about Shelly and Anna and cutting the preggo legacy since her mom didn't donate much anymore. Those were the actives Quinn introduced me to and they were so fake and nice and all I could think was that they were trying to stab Quinn in the back and ruin her plans for Kappa and I just couldn't stop myself."

Santana sank back into her chair, looking blankly away from Rachel as she took this in. "Fuck," she finally said after a minute. "I mean, I figured someone would know about Beth, but I never thought they'd use that against her. She's Quinn fucking Fabray, you know? She's cute and blonde and perky and her parents have money as far as they know…"

Rachel was quiet as she went to take Brittany's desk chair, letting Santana think her way through the situation. Rachel had literally been wracking her brain for the past 24 hours trying to come up with a plan of attack for the situation. Sadly, her lack of knowledge regarding the ins and outs of popular girls and sororities hindered the process.

"Okay. We are going to fix this," Santana finally said firmly. "We're going to have to call in the big dogs and we cannot let Quinn know anything about this, 'kay?"

Rachel nodded as she leaned forward to listen to what Santana had come up with.

* * *

Rachel had spent most of Thursday so completely immersed in her part of the "Q for Kappa" plot that she had completely forgotten what Thursday night had been scheduled for. It wasn't until she was in History class, furiously typing away her fifteenth email of the day, that she remembered.

Puck walked up the aisle at the same time the professor was heading toward the lectern. Barely raising her head to acknowledge him, Rachel kept at work on her latest email. She didn't even catch the signature smirk he was shooting in her direction or the fact that he was wearing the button up shirt she had picked out for him at Macy's months ago.

Undeterred, Puck set up his computer and opened up his gmail as soon as the laptop started.

**Puck:** u going for the hard to get angle now? kinda hard to pull off since u did ask ME out…

The little window popped up in the corner of Rachel's email and she froze as she read it. In all of her and Santana's plotting and strategies, she had completely forgotten what she had agreed to for that evening. She was supposed to be there with Santana to call Quinn's mother that afternoon which meant that she was officially double booked.

**Crazy:** Will it completely deflate your ego if I tell you that I forgot about our plans for the evening and instead have scheduled dinner and other plans with Santana?

**Puck:** u forgot? i told u san wants u for herself and was out to steal u

**Crazy: **Steal me? Wouldn't that imply that I already belong to someone? To whom do I allegedly belong?

**Crazy:** Furthermore, I should have you know that I am an independent woman and even when I do start a relationship with a man, I belong to no one but myself and it is imperative that any partner of mine understand that.

Puck was chuckling to himself, looking at Rachel next to him furiously typing away. He could tell that she really must have forgotten about their plans because she was wearing a pair of (tight as hell) black dance pants, a (so close to low cut) tank top with a little sweater on top. She was still more dressed up than three fourths of their class, but for Rachel Berry, that was slumming it.

**Puck:** so u are agreeing w/ my theory now that san wants in your tight little pants? bc its always good to know we're on the same page

**Crazy:** Santana does not "want in [my] pants", she can barely stand me. We are just working on something that is highly important and somewhat time sensitive.

**Puck:** whut is it?

**Crazy:** I really don't feel comfortable disclosing that to you at this juncture.

**Puck:** so ur cancelling on me, u won't tell me what u and san are up to, ya know, u really are hurting my ego here. i thought we were tight berry. something special.

**Puck: ** u know, our special jew bond

**Crazy:** I promise you, this has nothing to do with our religion or our friendship. You are still a highly important person in my life, but Santana and I need to work together in order to do something for another important person in our life. If we don't fix this now, I honestly don't know what will happen.

**Puck:** fuck, that sounds serious. u need my help?

**Crazy:** Hopefully not. You aren't included in any of our plans until at least Plan C. Hopefully A and B won't fail us because I really don't feel comfortable with Plan C as it stands currently.

His eyebrows both shot up, nudging Rachel with his elbow. When she turned to face him, he mouthed, "What the fuck?" There were multiple plans that might involve him and it involved one of their friends? Now he really wanted to know what the hell was up.

Rachel sighed as she looked at him. Santana and her had agreed that the fewer people that knew the better. But she was screwing up her and Puck's date-but-not-really-a-date-because-it-was-them plans and she had admitted to him that his involvement might be necessary, so Rachel felt it was necessary to let him in on what was going on.

"After class," she mouthed back before turning back to her computer. She minimized the chat window, ignoring it as it continually flashed throughout the class. Between taking notes (since he noticed she wasn't), Puck continued to make guesses regarding what was going on to require a Rachel and Santana alliance and multi-lettered plans. They ranged from Brittany failing her classes to Mr. Schue quitting teaching so that he could run away to some tropical isle where he had recruited Finn to be his cabana boy who would oil Schue up daily. None of his guesses got a response from Rachel, instead she just kept writing damn emails and it was frustrating him.

By the end of class, Puck had taken more notes on that one lecture than he had in all of his other classes combined. Rachel didn't say anything as she started to pack up her stuff and Puck just stared at her, really getting annoyed at this point, "Seriously, Berry, what the fuck is going on? Some shit must be going down if you're acting like this."

Rachel sighed as she shoved her pink laptop into its case, "It wouldn't be bad to most people, but just… it is."

"Okay, enough with the cryptic and ominous bullshit," he was stopped by the shocked look she was giving him, "I fucking paid attention in SAT class. How the fuck did you think I got into this place? My good looks?"

"Well you never know," her reply was supposed to be light and teasing, but instead came out as serious as her entire demeanor had been that day. That tone alone made it sound more rude than anything.

"Fuck off, Berry," he snapped. Puck moved to go down the aisle away from her when she reached out and grabbed his bicep.

"Noah, wait. Sorry, my head is just wrapped around this and I haven't slept a lot and…" she took a deep breath before giving his arm a light squeeze, "Will you walk me back to the dorm? I'll explain the entire situation to you, I promise."

Puck wanted to be mad at her. She had forgotten their date, she wasn't telling him anything and then she insulted him. His ego was about the size of an acorn. But when she touched him and looked up at him with her big tired eyes, he couldn't help but to agree, "Okay. Let's go."

On the walk across campus, Rachel spoke in mostly hushed tones and found herself repeating a couple of things. She just didn't want to be overheard by any of the sorority girls they might pass.

"That's shit. So just because some little bitch thinks she knows about Beth, they're going to fucking black ball Q? Have they not seen this chick? She's like fucking cut out using a sorostitute cookie cutter!"

"Quiet yourself Noah, please," Rachel implored him, looking around as they neared the dorm. "So now Santana are working together to try to rectify the situation."

"Is that all this plan A and B bullshit?"

"Yes. Plan A is what Santana and I are going to work on this evening. We are going to phone Mrs. Fabray and do our best to explain the situation and that her possibly making a donation to Kappa and getting in touch with some women at Nationals could help with her daughter's current predicament. Although her and Quinn aren't particularly close, she does care about her image in the organization and we're hoping to play off of that."

"And plan B?"

"That's what I've been working on. I'm contacting all of the Kappa alumnae in the greater Columbus and Lima area. Let them know just how interested I am in the house and hoping to meet with some of them for lunch so that I could get tips on rush. Then, when I get there, pretty much only talk up Quinn and how wonderful she is so that they tell the girls to keep her."

"That sounds like total crap," he told her honestly and she got that 'I'm about to give you a lecture' look on her face he had learned to fear for years during Glee. "Just saying, if the chicks are already being bitchy in the house, do you really think the old bitches will have that much of an influence?"

"We were hoping they might," Rachel said honestly, somewhat placated by his further explanation.

They had reached her dorm and he opened the front door for her, asking her a question as she passed by, "So what is plan C and how does it involve me?"

Rachel had the decency to blush a bit as she turned and walked down the hallway backwards so she could face him, "Convince you to seduce the president of Kappa, take incriminating photographs or tape of her, and use them against her so that they won't cut Quinn."

"Holy shit," he muttered out as she started to laugh, "There really is a sick and twisted mastermind in you, isn't there?" She turned to face forward and he took a few quick steps to catch up, throwing his arm around her shoulder, "Do you fantasize about taking over the world when you lay in bed at night? Because I so want to be on your side when that shit goes down."

"You're trying to be the Pinky to my Brain? Because I think Santana may have already filled that position."

"Holy shit, Pinky and the Brain reference? You really are the coolest chick ever, sometimes."

"Dot had a lot of characteristics I could relate to as a child." They reached her door and Rachel turned to face Puck, slipping her arms around his waist, "You know, both of us being so cute and our affection for short black skirts and all."

"I can actually see that," he told her, slipping his other arm around her shoulders. "So, if you're going to go take over the world with Santana tonight, think we could reschedule the hang and dinner thing? Maybe tomorrow night? Unless you've got some big frat party plans again with the girls."

"No big plans. No plans at all for that matter," she replied in a kittenish tone.

"Well, you've got plans now. And I won't take world domination or over-throwing a sorority as an excuse to let you out of this one."

"Duly noted," Rachel dragged one hand to the front of Puck's body, slowly rubbing up from his stomach to his pecs. When her hand reached his shoulder, she used that for leverage as she raised up onto her tip toes and placed a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. "Thanks for being so understanding," she said as she pulled away and reached for the doorknob.

Before she could twist it open, Puck had pulled her back to his body and leaned down, pressing his lips to hers in a far more serious kiss than what she had just given him. Rachel hadn't been expecting that, and she hadn't been expecting the soft moan she caught herself letting out as he kissed her.

Puck used that to his advantage, his tongue slipping into Rachel's mouth to massage her tongue. Rachel's bag fell off her shoulder with a thump but even that couldn't snap her out of the moment as her arms wrapped back around Puck's middle, pressing her body tighter to his.

After what felt like an hour of kissing but was really only a couple of minutes, Puck was desperate for air and pulled away, looking down at Rachel in his arms with her eyes still closed. "I know I should have saved that for after the date, but, fuck. Berry, that shit couldn't wait."

"That… I think… you made a good decision there," she barely managed to get out as a smile slowly formed on her lips. She opened her eyes to look up at him and licked her lips slowly before nodding, "A very good decision. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Seven pm. Be ready for some fucking epic shit," he told her, leaning down and kissing the tip of her nose quickly before letting go and stepping away. "Good luck tonight."

"Thanks," she called out half heartedly, leaning against her front door as she watched him walk down her hallway. It was only once he was gone and she had a chance to catch her breath did she gather up her bag and enter the suite. Santana was the only one home and Rachel shook her head as she approached the couch, "This better work because I don't think I want Noah going anywhere near that Kappa girl."

* * *

Santana and Rachel's phone conversation with Quinn's mother had been as effective as they could hope for in the time being. Judy Fabray may be a divorcee with a daughter who had gotten pregnant at age 16, but she cared just as much about appearances as the average WASP did. The entirety of her next monthly alimony check was going to be donated to Kappa and she assured the girls that a friend of hers was the vice president of nationals. She would be making a phone call to said friend and to Shelly's mother so that she could handle things on that end. It was no promise of a solution, but there was nothing more the girls could do until they heard back from her. She also promised to get them a more complete list of alumnae in the Ohio area so that they could continue work on plan B. Until Quinn was initiated as a Kappa, she felt the girls would have to stay on top of this matter.

Feeling somewhat proud of herself for being productive and working so well with Santana, Rachel was ready to celebrate on Friday night with her date. She had told Santana about it after they got off the phone with Quinn's mother, so when the other two got home from class, they were filled in and the planning began. Thursday night was spent putting together the perfect casual date outfit and doing trial runs for hair styles and make up. Rachel protested frequently, asserting that Noah had seen her at her absolute best and worst through the years, so these steps were unnecessary. But the girls shut her down every time, asserting that since it was an official date, on a Friday night nonetheless, Rachel was required to go all out.

This was how Rachel found herself sitting on the common room couch at 7 pm on Friday night far more done up than what she usually would be waiting for Puck to pick her up. She was wearing black skinny jeans ("Puck is obsessed with your legs," Santana promised her), four inch black peep toe patent booties that actually belonged to Santana ("You need to catch up in height with him," Quinn explained), and a paper thin white tank top whose ruffles on the front did little to cover up the black bra she was wearing underneath ("It makes Puck think about your boobs without dressing like you did last week," Brittany said sagely). She was desperate for a sweater or jacket or something, but the girls assured her bringing one would be a huge mistake. "If you get cold, it should be HIS job to warm you up," Santana explained as if she were talking to a twelve year old. So much for getting along.

When the date had been scheduled for a Thursday night, Puck's brilliant plan was to go back to Rachel's dorm, watch an hour or two of reruns of Fantasy Factory on MTV then hit up Rachel's dining hall where they had the world's greatest mac and cheese and chicken fingers.

Then Artie told him last night that Quinn's facebook status was that "Quinn Fabray is working on some serious date night prep for the roomie," he started to worry that he would have to make actual plans to live up to his promise of an "epic" date. This led him to google and trying to find a restaurant that would be vegan to make her happy but not complete and total crap food that would make him want to vomit at the sight of it.

The first ten or so restaurants on the list were not only listing foods that made Puck want to vomit, but he honestly had no idea what the hell kind of food they were. Ethiopian? Wasn't everyone starving there or some shit? How the hell did they have an entire restaurant of that type of food? Puck finally found the perfect place and was damn proud of himself.

At 7:05 he was knocking on Rachel's dorm room door and was met by three bitchy looks when the door opened.

"You're late," Quinn informed him as soon as she whipped the door open.

"Good dates aren't late," Brittany followed, doing her best to scowl at Puck and not giggle.

"I don't know if we should let you take our little girl out tonight," Santana finished, arms crossed and not having any problem with glaring at Puck.

"Just because you want to keep her to yourself doesn't mean she wants that, Satan," he retorted, looking over their heads and seeing Rachel standing in the common room laughing, "You ready to roll, Rach?"

"Yes, let me just get through the guard dogs," she said with a laugh, hugging the girls and joking about being home before curfew before she made her way to Puck. "Lead the way."

He took her hand, grinning as they walked away from her roommates (who he was flipping off behind his back with his free hand). "Ya know, I never thought you'd have those three playing protective for you."

"Tell me about it. Though I never thought I'd be in cahoots with Santana and Quinn's mother to assure Quinn's place in a sorority, either."

The pair kept up their banter as they climbed in Puck's truck and drove across town to the place Puck had decided on for their dinner. He parked and smirked as he watched Rachel look out the window at where he had brought her.

In front of her was a glaring yellow overhang that declared "Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace." Rachel was sure that Puck knew of her dietary restrictions and started looking up and down the street. Both store fronts on either side of the restaurant were for rent and she couldn't see any other feasible options. "Um, Noah? Is this our destination for the evening?"

"Well, just the first part. I figured we could go catch a movie after we ate."

"Here?" she asked, sounding slightly panicked.

Puck cracked, laughing and shaking his head at her reaction, "Trust me, Berry. Come in with me and you'll see."

Reluctantly, Rachel climbed out of the truck and took Puck's hand as he led her into the questionable establishment. It was only once they were inside and in line that she looked up at the menu and was able to be pleased with the sight before her.

There on the wall was a menu proudly boasting veggie dogs and options that could be made regular, vegetarian or vegan upon request. Lettuce wraps in the place of buns with plenty of veggie toppings and vegan sides. "Oh Noah!" she said, wrapping her arms around his middle and squeezing herself against him, "You did research!"

"Well yeah, you think I'm just going to take you to some lame restaurant where all you eat is a fucking salad or something sucky?"

"Well, maybe…" she said quietly, trailing off as she thought of how most of her dates in high school tended to go. Finn once took her to a pizzeria and when she saw the pepperoni pizza he ordered, she had to explain her dietary preferences. When he pulled off all the toppings looking so proud of himself, it almost broke Rachel's heart to tell him that she couldn't eat the crust because of the eggs in the dough. The thought that Puck had done research for a place that would make them both happy, well, it was enough to make her smile until her cheeks hurt.

"Well, Puckzilla doesn't roll like that. Now, I hope you've got some gum, because I'm thinkin I'm gonna get The Original Onions, a T-Dog, a Sauerkraut dog and an order of tots."

After their meal where Rachel was both pleased with her vegan option of a Chicago dog with her own side of tots and revolted by the amount Puck could pack away, he surprised her again by driving her to a vegan bakery for dessert. It was over whoopie pies that they realized they couldn't agree on any movies in the theater to see and decided renting a movie would be the way to go.

They stopped by a vending machine on their way back to campus and decided that a Pixar movie would be the way to go. "Up" was rented and they went back to Rachel's dorm room, confident that her roommates would be out for the night and they could have the common room without any problems. Sure enough, they got there and found the room empty and a note from Quinn that they had gone to a "Dazed and Confused" party at the Delt house.

Puck made himself at home on the couch, kicking off his shoes while Rachel started the movie. Climbing onto the couch next to him, Puck didn't hesitate wrapping an arm around her shoulders. When she sniffled in the first ten minutes, he pulled her closer to him and dropped a kiss to the top of her head. Hell, even he got a little choked up at that part of "Up," who didn't?

What he didn't expect was for her to turn to look up at him with those big brown wet eyes of hers. Leaning up to close the space between them, it was her that kissed him this time, not waiting for Puck to make a move. The kiss was just as intense as the one the day before had been, but it was less hungry and not as rushed.

When her tongue slipped along his lips, she could taste the vanilla from his cookie earlier. The collar of his polo shirt was perfect for her to grip onto as she pulled herself up towards him. They slipped into an easy rhythm with one another, picking up where they left off the last time they had been like this.

Neither hesitated when Puck pulled away, shifting them so that Rachel was laying on the couch, him between her legs and holding his weight in his arms as he leaned down to continue kissing her. They were almost lazy kisses, slow and long with detours taken to kiss along her neck and chest. When he had covered that skin with kisses, he sat her up and pulled her shirt over her head.

When she tugged at the hem of his polo, he laughed when she told him, "It's only fair, Noah." Thus, his shirt was gone too and the pair resumed their kissing. In their lack of a rush and getting caught up in one another, neither noticed when the movie finished playing and returned to the DVD menu. They didn't notice when the front door opened either.

"Holy hell, I'm blind!" Santana cried out, covering her eyes and turning. Brittany and Quinn were behind her, Quinn laughing and Brittany waving at the pair on the couch, "Hi guys!"

Puck stayed where he was, pushing himself up off of Rachel and turning to look over his shoulder at the trio, "You guys really know how to ruin a date, you know that?"

Rachel wasn't as calm, scrambling to grab her tank top from where Puck had dropped it on the floor and pulling it back on as quick as possible. Quinn just shook her head, "Yeah, well you look like you could use a chaperone."

"Is that the bubbly stuff? Santana let me pour that on her last New Years…" Brittany started before Santana slapped a hand over her mouth.

"You two finish your little…'moment' and say your goodbyes. You have ten minutes before we're checking in on you," Santana informed them, pulling the two blondes into her bedroom and shutting the door.

Rachel reached down and grabbed Puck's shirt, handing it to him and finally managing to smile, "Well, that wasn't awkward or embarrassing or anything."

"It's okay. You chicks just need to work out a better system. Leave a sock on the door or some shit."

"Is that you and Artie's system?" she teased as he pulled his shirt back over his head. She hadn't quite bothered with her own yet, still opting to just clutch it over her chest.

"Nah, you know, we don't have a system in place yet, how pathetic is that?" Puck stood up from the couch and held his hand out so that he could pull Rachel up as well. When she was on her feet, he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, "Maybe I should work one out?"

She grinned, standing on her tip toes to press a quick kiss to his lips, "Soon."

He laughed and winked at her, "You got it babe." One more quick kiss and he stepped away from her, headed towards the door, "See ya for tailgating tomorrow?"

"Of course."

"Later babe," and with that, Puck was out the door. He shut it behind him and stood there for a few minutes, listening to the trio of girls bust into the common room to assault Rachel with questions and laugh and squeal and clap and do other chick things as she described her date to them. Damn right, Puckerman did fucking awesome that night.


End file.
